A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  ART 


HISTORY    OF 
AMERICAN  ART 


By 
SADAKICHI    HARTMANN 


In  Two  Volumes 

VOL.   I. 
I  tins trated 


BOSTON 
L.   C.   PAGE   6?   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


1  4  7  3  f :  9 


Copyright,  rgot 
BY  L.  C.  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

(INCORPORATED) 
All  rights  reserved 


Fifth  Impression,  May,  1909 


Colonial 

Elect  retyped  and  Printed  by  C.  H.  Simonds  &  Co. 
Boston,  Mass..  U.  S.  A. 


Library 


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TO  MY   UNCLE 

lErnst  ^artmann 

AMONG  WHOSE  BOOKS  AND  ART  TREASURES 

I   SPENT   MY   CHILDHOOD,  AND   WHOM 

I  HAVE  TO  THANK  FOR  MY   FIRST 

APPRECIATION   OF  ART. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  KAGB 

I.  AMERICAN  ART  BEFORE  1828   .        .        .15 

II.  OUR  LANDSCAPE  PAINTERS       ...      46 

HI.  THE  OLD  SCHOOL 137 

IV.  THE  NEW  SCHOOL 217 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

BRUSH.  —  MOTHER  AND  CHILD  .  .  Frontispiece 
COPLEY.  —  FAMILY  PICTURE  .  .  .  .19 
WEST.  —  BATTLE  OF  THE  HAGUE  ...  23 
TRUMBULL.  —  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER  HILL  .  .  29 
VANDERLYN.  —  ARIADNE  OF  NAXOS  ...  39 
COLE.  —  THE  VOYAGE  OF  LIFE  (CHILDHOOD)  .  49 

VEDDER. —  LANDSCAPE 81 

INNESS  —  GEORGIA  PINES 87 

WYANT — ON  THE  BEAVER  .  .  .  .91 
TWACHTMAN.  —  THE  POPLARS  .  .  .  .  113 
MARTIN.  —  HARP  OF  THE  WINDS  .  .  .123 

TRYON.  —  SPRING 131 

WEIR.  —  SAILING  OF  THE  PILGRIMS  .  .  .143 
JOHNSON.  —  OLD  STAGE -COACH  .  .  .159 
HUNT.  —  THE  FLIGHT  OF  NIGHT  .  .  .167 
HUNT.  —  CHARLES  RIVER  WITH  BATHERS  .  171 
WATERMAN.  —  MAUROUF  AMONG  THE  MER- 
CHANTS   175 

LA  FAROE — CHRIST  AND  NICODEMUS  .  .  181 
HOMER.  —  INSIDE  THE  BAR  ....  195 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGB 

EAKINS.  —  OPERATION 201 

FULLER.  —  A  TURKEY  PASTURE        .        .        .  205 

FULLER.  —  ROMANY  GIRL 213 

CHASE.  —  PORTRAIT  OF  A  CHILD       .        .        .  227 

SNELL.  —  TWILIGHT  ON  THE  RIVER  .        .        .  237 

WALKER.  —  SPRING  MORNING    ....  243 

TREGO.  —  THE  COLOUR  -  GUARD  .        .        .        .  255 

BRUSH.  —  THE  INDIAN  AND  THE  LILY      .        .  263 

BRUSH.  —  MOTHER  AND  CHILD  ....  269 

THAYER.  —  THE  VIRGIN 273 

CHURCH.  —  VIKING'S  DAUGHTER        .        .        .  291 

BLASHFIELD.  —  STRAINS  OF  GREY     .        .        .  297 

DEWING.  —  IN  THE  GARDEN       ....  305 

RYDER.  —  FLYING  DUTCHMAN   .       .       .       .  319 


A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN  ART. 


CHAPTER   I. 

AMERICAN   ART   BEFORE    1828. 

CURING  the  reign  of  King  George 
III.,  when  the  town  of  Boston 
had  scarcely  more  than  eighteen 
thousand  inhabitants,  there  hung  in  the 
library  of  Harvard  University  a  copy  of 
the  Cardinal  Bentivoglio  by  Van  Dyck, 
painted  by  John  Smybert,  the  first  Eng- 
lish artist  of  any  note  who  settled  for  a 
length  of  time  in  New  England. 

This  picture,  although  nothing  but  a  pale 

reflection  of  a  master-work,  served  a  num- 

ber  of  young  American  painters  as  chief 

object  of  inspiration,  —  Copley,  Trumbull, 

15 


1 6          A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

Wilson  Peale,  and  Allston  copying  it  in 
turn,  —  and  may,  in  this  respect,  be  re- 
garded as  the  first  impetus  to  the  founda- 
tion of  a  native  American  art. 

This  fact  in  itself  is  significant  enough 
to  show  the  conditions  of  art  resources  at 
the  time  when  young  Copley  in  Boston 
and  the  Quaker  boy  West  in  Philadelphia 
made  their  first  venture  in  the  world  and 
their  profession.  In  our  day  of  constant 
interchange  it  seems  hard  to  realise  the 
position  of  a  painter  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  There  was  absolutely  no  art  fric- 
tion in  the  atmosphere ;  the  few  artists 
who  had  achieved  anything  like  excellence, 
as  Malbone,  the  miniaturist,  E.  Savage,  F. 
V.  Doornick,  O.  A.  Bullard,  Pine,  the  Eng- 
lishmen Blackburn  and  Williams,  Cosmo 
Alexander,  the  teacher  of  Stuart,  and 
Samuel  King,  of  Newport,  the  teacher  of 
Allston,  could  diffuse  their  sentiments, 
opinions,  and  experiences  only  in  most 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    1828.  \*J 

limited  circles.  Exhibitions  were  un- 
known, and  the  patronage  of  the  few 
families  who  were  no  longer  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  elementary  problems  of 
existence  was  confined  to  portraiture. 
The  majority  of  painters  of  this  period,  as 
well  as  that  of  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  were  "  travelling  artists^K 
who  went  forth  over  the  country,  painting 
portraits  or  sign-boards,  decorations  for 
stage-coaches  and  fire-engines,  or  what- 
ever else  they  could  find  to  do  for  practice 
and  living.  The  talented  artist,  who  felt 
a  soul  struggling  within  him,  was  forced 
to  let  it  expand  with  no  help  from  his 
surroundings  —  indeed  in  most  instances 
with  the  very  meagrest  of  mechanical  re- 
sources. 

The  New  England  States,  although  op- 
posed to  art  on  principle,  were  after  all 
that  part  of  the  country  in  which  signs 
of  literary  and  artistic  activity  became 


1 8          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

first  apparent  in  sporadic  and  individual 
cases. 

John  Singleton  Copley  (1737-1815)  was 
the  only  American  artist  of  this  period 
who  did  meritorious  work  before  he  came 
under  foreign  influences.  Already  as  a 
young  man  he  wielded  his  brush  with 
more  than  ordinary  dexterity,  and  revealed 
himself  as  a  full-fledged  personality.  His 
large  compositions,  "  Death  of  the  Earl 
of  Chatham"  (at  the  National  Gallery, 
London)  and  "  The  Death  of  Major  Pier- 
son,"  which  established  his  fame  in  Eng- 
land, are  painted  with  a  breadth  and  virility 
that  remotely  recall  Rembrandt  and  Franz 
Hals.  The  grouping  of  the  numerous  por- 
trait figures  in  the  Chatham  picture  is 
most  skilfully  arranged,  and  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  high  lights  on  the  principal 
scene  of  action,  on  the  heads  of  the 
numerous  figures,  and  the  brown-panelled 
walls,  is  handled  with  astonishing  mas- 


o 
U 


2 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    1828.  21 

tery.  His  style,  simple  and  matter-of-fact, 
influenced  David  to  that  extent  that  he 
suddenly  changed  his  style  and  painted 
the  death  of  Marat  and  Lepelletier  in 
a  similar  realistic  fashion.  Of  course, 
Copley's  creations  were  still  studio  pic- 
tures; he  stood  in  no  close  relation  with 
nature,  and  could  never  overcome  the 
hardness  of  his  outlines,  but  his  efforts 
give  us  at  least  half-way  artistic  reflec- 
tions of  the  costume  and  character  of  his 
time.  To  our  art  only  the  portraits  which 
he  painted  in  Boston  are  of  importance. 

They  lead  us  into  interiors  of  the  "  royal- 

/\i 
ist  era,"  with  carved   chairs  and   showy 

curtains,  peopled  with  well-to-do  men  and 
women,  proud  of  their  birth,  and  lavishly 
robed  in  ruffles,  silver  buckles,  gold-em- 
broidered waistcoats,  and  rich  brocade 
dressing-gowns. 

Copley's  contemporary,  Benjamin  West 
(1738-1820),  had   nothing  at  all  in  com- 


22          A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

mon  with  the  development  of  American 
art.  He  left  at  an  early  age  for  England, 
where  he  climbed  the  very  pinnacle  of 
social  if  not  artistic  success,  becoming  a 
personal  friend  of  the  king,  who  almost 
exclusively  employed  him  as  his  historical 
painter  from  1767  until  1802,  and  suc- 
ceeding Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  in  the  Pres- 
identship of  the  Royal  Academy  in  1 792. 
He  became  responsible  for  many  portraits, 
and  endless  historical  and  Biblical  works, 
which  can  be  studied  to  the  best  advan- 
tage at  the  London  National  Gallery  and 
the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 
His  dignified  but  stilted  compositions,  like 
"Christ  Rejected"  and  "Death  on  the 
Pale  Horse,"  have  become  absolutely  un- 
palatable to  our  modern  generation.  We 
appreciate  his  love  for  heroic  size,  —  the 
canvas  of  his  "  Christ  Rejected  "  is  200  by 
264,  —  his  daring  innovation  of  dressing 
historical  characters  in  the  costume  of  the 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    1828.  2  5 

time  and  country  in  which  they  lived 
("  The  Death  of  Wolfe  "),  but  remain  abso- 
lutely unmoved  by  his  cold,  relief-like 
drawing  and  dead,  gray  colouring.  It  is 
rather  his  picturesque  personality  than  his 
art  which  attracts  us  to-day. 

Nevertheless  the  influence  of  his  career 
was  favourably  felt.  His  success  had  been 
so  extraordinary  that  it  fired  the  ambition 
of  many  a  young  American  painter.  What 
was  possible  to  a  poor  Quaker  seemed  to 
be  also  within  easy  reach  of  other  talents. 
It  served  as  an  encouragement  to  take  up 
painting  as  a  regular  profession.  And  his 
/  native  town,  Philadelphia,  where  it  was 
said  that  the  Cherokee  Indians  taught 
him  the  secret  of  preparing  colour,  prof- 
ited the  most  by  it.  It  was  the  first  city 
of  the  Union  where  opportunities  for  art 
growth  and  a  moderate  patronage  pre- 
sented themselves.  Matthew  Pratt  and 
Robert  Feke,  a  Quaker,  who  enjoyed  the 


26          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

reputation  of  painting  almost  as  well  as 
West,  painted  numerous  colonial  family 
portraits.  Charles  Wilson  Peale  (1741- 
1829),  a  man  of  rare  versatility  and  also 
a  portraitist  of  some  merit,  established 
the  first  art  gallery,  a  "  Museum  "  of  his- 
torical portraits,  in  his  residence  at  the 
corner  of  Third  and  Lombard  Streets, 
Philadelphia,  and  helped  to  found  the 
Philadelphia  Academy  in  1805,  whose 
director  he  was  until  1810. 

In  the  meantime  the  first  two  of  what 
we  may  call  "  native  talents  "  had  exerted 
themselves  in  behalf  of  American  paint- 
ing: Gilbert  Stuart  (1755-1828)  and  John 
Trumbull  (1756-1843). 

Gilbert  Stuart,  born  at  Narragansett, 
R.  I.,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  colour- 
ists  and  portrait  painters  of  modern  times, 
and  had  for  almost  a  century  no  superior 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  His  stay 
with  West  in  London  harmed  the  origi- 


AMERICAN    ART   BEFORE    1828.  27 

nality  of  his  work  in  no  way ;  from  the 
very  start  his  art  was  as  delicate  and  re- 
fined as  that  of  his  contemporaries  Rom- 
ney  and  Gainsborough,  with  whom  he 
successfully  competed.  Many  of  the  best 
years  of  his  art  life,  however,  were  spent 
in  America,  where  he  painted  many  nota- 
bles of  the  day,  among  them  George 
Washington,  who  sat  for  him  three  times. 
(The  Vaughan  picture  belongs  to  Mrs. 
Joseph  Harrison,  Philadelphia,  the  Lans- 
downe,  a  full-length  portrait,  is  at  the 
Philadelphia  Academy,  and  the  Athe- 
naeum head  at  the  Boston  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts.) 

Brilliant  colouring,  firm  yet  remarkably 
free  handling,  natural,  lifelike  posing,  and 
an  individual  conception  which  dominates 
all  the  details  of  his  workmanship,  are  the 
striking  characteristics  of  all  his  pictures. 
The  richness  of  his  flesh-tints,  and  his  un- 
erring precision  in  modelling  the  face  with- 


28          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

out  the  help  of  lines, —  he  always  remained 
true  to  his  much  quoted  maxim,  "  There 
are  no  lines  in  nature" — all  apparently 
so  simple  and  yet  so  massive  and  effect- 
ive, are  astonishing.  An  inexhaustible 
virility  and  ever-buoyant  enthusiasm  fur- 
nished the  key-note  of  his  character,  and 
the  result  was  portraits  of  men  and 
women,  who  seem  alive  and  imbued  with 
an  individual  character  of  their  own,  even 
if  the  colour  of  their  complexion  is  sub- 
ject rather  to  an  idealising  method  than 
to  nature.  His  brush  work  as  well  as  his 
colour  —  with  the  exception  of  those  por- 
traits that  have  of  late  acquired  a  curious 
purplish  hue  —  are  as  interesting  to-day 
as  they  were  one  hundred  years  ago. 
He  was  a  past  master  of  his  art,  and  it 
took  almost  a  century  of  ceaseless  work 
and  endeavour  before  American  painters 
learned  to  paint  again  with  the  same  ease 
and  grace  as  did  Gilbert  Stuart,  when  our 


AMERICAN    ART   BEFORE    1828.  3! 

American  art  was  still  in  its  swaddling- 
clothes. 

Trumbull  was  quite  a  different  type. 
He  was  less  richly  endowed  with  natural 
gifts ;  with  him  every  accomplishment 
meant  strenuous  study,  and  the  less  said 
of  his  merit  as  a  painter  the  better.  Yet 
he  will  always  remain  dear  to  us  for  his 
glorification  of  our  revolutionary  history, 
for  his  "  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,"  "  Death  of 
Montgomery,"  and  "  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence," reproductions  of  which  are 
familiar  to  every  child,  as  no  primer  of 
history  is  published  without  them.  Most 
of  his  pictures  are  in  the  art  gallery  of 
Yale  College. 

America  had  now  become  an  independ- 
-  ent  nation,  and  everywhere  a  restless 
activity  set  in.  The  problems  of  exist- 
ence had  to  be  solved,  new  forms  of 
government  founded,  and  manifold  incon- 
gruous elements  welded  into  one  nation. 


32          A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

The  growth  of  our  art,  however,  was 
rather  handicapped  than  benefited  by 
these  conditions.  The  "  royalists,"  the 
only  ones  who  could  afford  the  luxury 
of  art,  had  left  the  country,  and  the  rest 
of  the  population,  forced  to  wrest  from 
fate  the  right  of  existence,  were  too  busy 
with  their  material  welfare  to  feel  any- 
thing but  indifference  for  those  few  asser- 
tions of  poetic  sentiment  that  now  and 
then  appeared  on  the  surface  of  public 
life.  In  the  first  twenty  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  our  art  life  was  still 
utterly  insignificant.  But  again  three 
men  stepped  forth  who  bore  upon  their 
brush-tips  the  honour  and  progress  of 
American  art:  Thomas  Sully  (1783- 
1872),  John  Vanderlyn  (1776-1852),  and 
Washington  Allston  (1779-1843). 

While  the  second  war  with  Great 
Britain  was  raging  in  the  North,  Sully, 
having  chosen  Philadelphia  for  his  per- 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    I#2&.  33 

manent  home,  rapidly  became  the  most 
fashionable  portrait  painter  of  the  day. 
In  forming  his  style,  he  had  been  chiefly 
influenced  by  Thomas  Lawrence,  and 
like  him  he  portrayed  all  the  fashionable 
women  of  his  time.  Nearly  every  Phil- 
adelphian  family  with  ancestors  has  to 
show  some  of  these  sweet,  musing  faces, 
with  their  robes  draped  picturesquely 
about  them,  and  with  nothing  to  do  but 
to  look  graceful.  At  the  historical  por- 
trait exhibition  at  the  Philadelphia  Acad- 
emy, 1887-88,  Sully  was  represented  by 
one  hundred  and  six  pictures,  showing 
great  versatility  and  extraordinary  powers 
of  conception  and  execution.  He  himself 
would,  no  doubt,  have  been  the  first  to 
admit  that  he  had  done  too  much,  but  in 
that  he  is  not  exceptional.  Few  artists 
have  the  heart  to  refuse  commissions, 
when  such  are  almost  thrust  upon  them, 
—  as  was  the  case  with  Sully  since  he  had 


34          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

painted  a  full-length  portrait  of  Queen 
Victoria  in  1838,  —  and  try  for  less  work, 
more  thoroughly  executed. 

About  the  same  time  that  Sully  de- 
picted Pennsylvania  ladies  of  fashion, 
Vanderlyn,  living  in  Rome  in  the  house 
that  Salvator  Rosa  once  occupied,  painted 
his  "  Ariadne,"  and  Allston  was  at  work 
in  Cambridgeport  at  his  enormous  canvas, 
"  Belshazzar's  Feast." 

In  the  work  of  both  these  men,  the 
influence  of  Italy  is  palpable.  Many 
pictures  of  the  old  masters,  either  origi- 
nals or  copies  of  more  or  less  merit,  had 
been  imported  from  the  Italian  peninsula 
during  the  disturbances  which  then  con- 
vulsed Europe,  and  strongly  influenced 
public  taste  in  their  favour.  The  artists, 
waiting  patiently,  but  in  vain,  for  the  pub- 
lic to  come  up  to  their  ideals,  decided  to 
meet  it  half-way  by  studying  the  Italian 
methods  of  painting.  And  so  it  became 


AMERICAN   ART   BEFORE    1828.  35 

the  fashion  for  young  art  students  to  go 
to  Italy — Henry  Bainbridge,  a  pupil  of 
Mengs  and  Battoni,  was  the  first  —  to 
complete  their  art  studies,  as  later  on 
they  went  to  Dusseldorf  and  Barbizon. 

But  there  was  little  for  a  painter  to 
learn  in  Europe  at  that  time,  no  matter 
where  he  went.  The  art  of  painting  had 
fallen  asleep  with  the  decadence  of  the 
Dutch  school,  and  was  once  more  in 
a  lethargic  state.  It  was  the  time  of 
Davids  and  Overbecks  and  Wests,  a 
time  devoid  of  great  painters.  All  the 
teachings  of  academies  and  universities 
tended  to  monumental  art;  drawing  and 
composition  were  mastered  solely  as  the 
language  of  ideas,  and  the  human  figure 
was  studied  chiefly  for  the  expression  of 
narrative  or  dramatic  action.  Concep- 
tions so  lofty  could  hardly  find  an  ade- 
quate sphere  in  easel  painting,  but  needed 
canvas  of  a  larger  scale. 


3b          A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Washington  Allston  represents  this 
school  in  America.  Thanks  to  Jared 
B.  Flagg,  his  biographer,  we  know  more 
about  this  painter's  life  and  public  career 
than  that  of  most  artists.  This  biography 
is  a  very  reliable  and  elaborate  work,  going 
into  the  minutest  details.  But  there  is 
hardly  a  demand  for  such  a  memorial  of 
the  painter  of  "  Belshazzar's  Feast."  Only 
a  certain  set  of  old-fashioned  amateurs, 
who  cannot  keep  pace  with  the  rapid 
strides  of  modern  art,  and  who  still  cling 
to  Allston's  memory  as  to  a  sort  of 
American  Titian,  may  have  looked  out 
for  such  a  book,  and  now  greet  it  with 
all  the  mild  enthusiasm  left  to  old  age. 
The  younger  generation,  however,  aspir- 
ing to  understand  modern  art,  which 
sacrifices  ideas  and  feelings  to  technical 
accomplishment,  has  but  little  in  common 
with  the  austere  dilettantism  of  Washing- 
ton Allston. 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    I»2tf.  37 

Washington  Allston  could  be  treated 
in  a  friendly  manner  without  receiving 
the  cult  of  a  demigod  and  absurd  com- 
parison with  the  cinque-cento  masters. 
As  a  man  of  artistic  temperament  and 
ambition,  he  stood  high  above  even  the 
more  advanced  of  his  period,  and  Long- 
fellow's, Lowell's,  and  Emerson's  admira- 
tion for  him  can  probably  be  explained 
by  the  sympathy  they  felt  for  that  quiet 
enthusiast,  whose  dreary  fate  it  was  to 
paint  "under  debt"  in  Cambridgeport. 
What  a  Hades  Cambridgeport  must  have 
been  seventy-five  years  ago  to  a  man  of 
Allston's  character ! 

And  we,  standing  in  the  full  glare  of  sun- 
light, when  we  look  back  to  the  past,  and 
perceive  his  dignified  figure  against  the 
dark,  sombre  background  of  his  unfin- 
ished "  Belshazzar's  Feast,"  at  the  Boston 
Museum,  with  its  heavy  architectonic 
background  and  life-size  figures,  —  even 


147362 


38          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

thermost  radical  impressionist  among  us, 
— should  feel  something  like  reverence  for 
that  man,  who  ever  shunned  popularity 
and  held  nothing  dearer  than  his  art. 
Many  of  our  mercenary  painters  might  go 
to  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  and 
learn  something  of  that  sublime  botcher, 
who  was  sincere  even  when  he  made  such 
daubs  as  "  Lorenzo  and  Jessica." 

His  nobility  of  character  can  best  be 
traced  in  his  outline  drawings;  they  are 
firm,  graceful,  and  competent,  but  he  in- 
variably failed  to  convey  the  idea  they 
expressed  into  his  finished  pictures,  which 
have  but  little  merit  in  regard  to  colour- 
ing, values,  or  modelling.  He  was  an  imi- 
tator all  his  life  and  very  often  a  copyist, 
as  in  "The  Sisters,"  where  a  whole  figure 
\  is  borrowed  from  Titian's  "  Lavinia." 

He  liked  the  architectonic  background 
of  Titian,  the  Michael  Angelo  attitudes 
of  Tintoretto,  the  purity  of  design  of 


AMERICAN    ART   BEFORE    1828.  4! 

Raphael,  and  now  and  then  demon- 
strated in  his  paintings  the  result  of  these 
studies.  Of  all  his  paintings,  that  are  at 
present  in  America,  his  "  Angel  Liberat- 
ing St.  Peter  from  Prison,"  in  the  insane 
asylum  at  Worcester,  is  the  only  one 
that  has  decided  merit.  The  slender 
figure  of  the  angel,  robed  in  white,  his 
sweet  Raphaelic  face,  framed  in  by  waves 
of  brown  hair,  is  beautiful,  and  almost 
worth  a  trip  to  Worcester.  His  portraits, 
like  those  of  his  mother,  and  of  Coleridge, 
represent,  perhaps,  his  best  work,  though 
they  can  in  no  way  stand  comparison  with 
the  portraits  of  Gilbert  Stuart. 

A  direct  outcome  of  the  Italian  school 
was  Vanderlyn,  who  has  painted  only  two 
pictures  of  decided  merit,  "  Marius  Sitting 
on  the  Ruins  of  Carthage  "  (in  the  posses- 
sion of  Bishop  Kip,  California),  medalled 
personally  by  Napoleon  I.  in  1808,  and 
his  "  Ariadne  of  Naxos  "  at  the  Philadel- 


42          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

phia  Academy.  Few  painters  have  ever 
succeeded  in  rendering  the  nude  with 
such  purity  of  expression  as  in  this  figure 
11  pillowed  upon  her  arm  and  raven  hair." 
It  is  in  my  opinion  the  best  nude  this 
country  has  ever  produced,  and  I  say 
this  after  due  consideration  of  a  "  Nude  " 
by  Fuller  and  "  The  Reflection  "  by  Fitz. 
Many  of  our  modern  painters  may  be 
technically  Vanderlyn's  superiors,  but  the 
"  innocent  repose  "  and  "  unconscious  love- 
liness" of  this  Ariadne  seem  impossible 
for  them  to  attain.  At  that  time  realism 
was  still  unknown,  and  the  figure  is  in 
consequence  an  ideal  one,  but  so  beauti- 
fully modelled  and  so  delicious  in  its 
flesh-tints  that  one  willingly  misses  the 
modern  note.  Vanderlyn's  technique 
was  in  every  way  sufficient  to  realise 
the  conception.  Only  the  landscape  is 
of  inferior  workmanship,  but  its  dark 
green  monotonies  form  a  delightful  back- 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    1828.  43 

ground  and  contrast  with  the  red  and 
the  white  of  the  drapery,  and  the  rose 
tints  of  the  body. 

The  excellence  of  the  work  of  some  of 
the  men  mentioned  in  this  chapter  was 
largely  due  to  foreign  influences,  and  did 
not  combine  toward  a  practical  and  com- 
mon end.  Each  one  had  to  work  out  his 
own  salvation.  Besides  they  attempted 
too  much.  Great  epics  cannot  be  accom- 
plished by  amateurs.  Their  gigantic  can- 
vases might  not  have  been  filled  success- 
fully even  by  a  Veronese  or  Tintoretto. 
Consequently  their  talents  were  not  always 
shown  to  their  best  advantage  in  these 
ambitious  tasks.  The  less  important 
their  work  happened  to  be,  the  more 
artistic  it  seemed  to  become.  Some  of 
the  academical  studies  after  the  nude 
by  Trumbull  are  charming,  and  some 
of  Allston's  sketches  contain  delightful 
passages. 


44          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

The  joint  endeavour  to  pass  to  styles 
more  naturalistic  and  poetical,  to  endow 
American  art  with  traits  distinctly  native, 
was  made  during  the  following  fifty  years. 
It  was  a  hard  struggle,  many  mistakes 
were  made,  and  although  the  artists  wished 
to  rely  entirely  upon  their  own  technical 
resources,  they  never  succeeded  in  freeing 
themselves  from  the  imitation  of  foreign 
conventionalities.  Only  after  years  of  dil- 
ettantism were  they  wise  enough  to  study 
more  advanced  foreign  styles  and  develop 
those  complete  methods  which  sustain  our 
present  art. 

The  more  astonishing  do  the  few  but 
brilliant  efforts  of  those  men  who  nour- 
ished the  growth  of  Amercan  art  at  its 
beginning  appear  to  us  now.  The  art  of 
few  nations  can  boast  of  having  possessed 
at  the  very  start  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able portraitists  of  all  times  and  countries, 
and  to  have  produced,  in  regard  to  proper- 


AMERICAN    ART    BEFORE    1828.  45 

tion  and  symmetry  of  form  and  composi- 
tion, gravity  and  dignity  in  motive  and 
conception,  one  of  the  best  nudes  ever 
painted. 


CHAPTER   II. 

OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS. 

[N  the  winter  of  1828-29,  —  two 
years  after  the  National  Academy 
of  Design  was  founded  in  New 
York,  —  Thomas  Cole  (1801-48),  then  an 
absolutely  unknown  artist,  righting  bravely 
against  every  form  of  adversity,  held  an 
exhibition  of  his  sketches  in  New  York, 
and  gained  immediate  recognition  among 
the  profession,  so  much  so  that  John 
Trumbull,  Asher  B.  Durand,  and  William 
Dunlap  purchased  some  of  his  work  and 
sought  his  acquaintanceship.  These  were 
sketches  that  he  had  painted  in  the  Cats- 
kills,  the  banks,  rocks,  woods,  dells  and 
cascades  around  the  neighbourhood  of 
Clove,  destined  to  become  the  stamping- 
46 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  47 

ground  of  so  many  of  his  followers.  They 
contained  as  good  work  as  anything  he 
did  later,  his  observation  of  the  form  and 
outline  of  nature  was  even  keener  at  this 
time,  than  when  his  imagination  was  given 
a  fuller  sway. 

It  was  a  memorable  exhibition,  as  it 
gave  America  its  first  painter  who  painted 
landscapes  professionally.  Until  then  Cole 
had  either  struggled  along,  half  starving,  in 
Philadelphia  or  New  York  garrets,  thank- 
ful when  a  customer  appeared  to  buy  a 
picture  for  ten  or  twenty  dollars,  or  gone 
forth  over  the  country,  after  the  fashion 
of  travelling  artists,  with  a  green  bag  over 
his  shoulder  containing  his  painting  mate- 
rial and  a  flute,  stopping  at  taverns  and 
painting  a  portrait  or  sign-board  in  return 
for  board  and  lodging.  Now  the  hard 
part  of  his  fight  was  over;  he  came  into 
contact  with  men  who  had  drawn  their 
inspiration  from  Benjamin  West,  and  who 


48         A   HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

owned  at  least  lofty  ideals,  if  but  little 
technique.  He  soon  found  his  way  to 
England,  into  the  studios  of  Turner,  Con- 
stable, Lawrence,  and  other  men  of  note. 
On  his  return  to  this  country  he,  however, 
showed  that  he  was  less  influenced  by 
these  modern  men,  who  were  just  estab- 
lishing their  fame,  than  by  the  study  of 
Claude  Lorraine  and  Salvator  Rosa.  He 
was  an  ardent  scholar  of  English  litera- 
ture, and  the  influence  of  Bunyan  and 
Walter  Scott  can  be  traced  in  all  his 
works.  He  was  the  upholder  of  the  imag- 
inative landscape,  he  transcribed  nature 
with  the  glance  of  a  poetic  imagination, 
and  Bryant  and  Cooper  found  much  to 
praise  in  his  works.  He  was  in  truth 
more  of  a  poet  than  a  painter.  His  draw- 
ing was  feeble,  his  sense  for  colour  un- 
developed, and  his  touch  hard  and  dry, 
like  that  of  most  of  his  contemporaries. 
He  mastered  chiaroscuro,  however,  and 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  5 1 

his  big  canvases  show  how  far  nature  can 
J>e  represented  by  mere  light  and  shade 
/  composition.  The  serious  turn  of  his 
^mind  gave  at  times  a  religious  fervour  to 
_•:"'  his  pictures,  which  commands  our  respect, 
even  when  we  fail  altogether  to  appreciate 
-  the  result.  It  is  difficult  for  a  modern 
man  to  appreciate  panorama-like  scener- 
ies like  "The  Cross  of  the  World" and  his 
famous  serial,  "  The  Voyage  of  Life  "  (ex- 
hibited in  the  thirties),  the  more  so  as  time 
has  darkened  their  colour  beyond  retrieve. 
Yet  in  all  his  compositions,  particularly 
in  his  "  Prometheus,"  "  The  Architect's 
Dream,"  and  his  serial  "  The  Course  of 
Empire,"  consisting  of  five  large  canvases 
(now  at  the  Historical  Society,  New 
York)  and  representing  a  nation's  rise, 
progress,  decline,  and  fall,  a  rapturous  love 
of  nature  is  evident,  and  a  powerful  mind 
seeking  to  find  expression  for  some  lofty 
literary  ideal.  The  five  pictures  represent 


52          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

the  same  locality ;  the  first  shows  the  scene 
at  sunrise  in  spring ;  the  second,  the  em- 
pire in  its  youth  with  the  sun  in  the  sky ; 
the  third,  the  powerful  city  with  temples, 
colonnades,  and  domes  at  harvest-time; 
the  fourth,  the  destruction  of  the  city  by 
invaders.  The  last  picture  of  the  serial, 
entitled  "  Desolation/'  has  rarely  been  sur- 
passed in  solemn  majesty  and  depth  of 
thought.  It  represents  a  gray  silent  waste, 
broken  by  an  expanse  of  water,  once  the 
harbour  of  a  mighty  city.  A  solitary 
moss-grown  Corinthian  column  looms  up 
in  the  fore-ground;  behind  it  in  the  dis- 
tance a  temple  is  seen  in  ruins.  The 
moon,  freeing  herself  from  a  stratum  of 
clouds,  pours  her  pale  light  on  the  desolate 
coast  land,  of  which  the  wildness  and  soli- 
tude of  primitive  nature  has  again  taken 
possession. 

Thomas  Doughty,  one  of  Cole's  con- 
temporaries, was  also  one  of  the  "  young 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  53 

Americans  "  who  attracted  favourable  no- 
tice in  England,  as  well  as  in  his  own 
country.  Few  men  have  done  so  well 
with  so  little  experience.  He  was  in  the 
leather  business  until  his  twenty-eighth 
year.  His  pictures,  although  at  times  at- 
tempting large  compositions,  were  known 
for  their  simplicity,  their  poetic  traits,  and 
/soft,  silvery  tones.  They  are  unpreten- 
-  tious  as  works  of  art,  but  the  art  historian 
cannot  overlook  them,  exerting  as  they  did 
an  influence  on  the  style  of  the  landscapes 
that  followed  them. 

The  third  who  has   to   be  mentioned 

t 

among  the  founders  of  American  land- 
scape painting  is  Asher  B.  Durand  (1796- 
~"i886),  a  man  of  larger  technical  experi- 
ence, but  of  less  talent  than  the  two  for- 
mer. He  was  by  profession  (until  1835) 
a  steel  engraver,  one  of  the  most  skilful 
our  art  ever  possessed,  but  at  the  same 
time  very  successful  in  entirely  different 


54          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

branches.  He  painted  a  head  of  Bryant, 
which  placed  him  in  rank  with  the  best 
portrait  painters  of  the  time,  and  his  land- 
scapes were  so  fresh  and  vigorous  in  treat- 
ment, and  so  massive  in  the  handling  of 
the  backgrounds,  that  he  can  with  right 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  pioneers  in 
this  department.  The  care  he  had  been 
obliged  to  give  to  engraving  was,  at  times, 
a  drawback  to  perfect  mastery,  but  on  the 
other  hand  also  proved  of  assistance  to 
him  in  the  composition  of  lines.  He  had 
a  keen  insight  into  the  individuality  of 
trees,  and  his  oak,  sycamore,  and  butter- 
nut studies  are  very  valuable  reminis- 
cences of  the  woodlands  he  loved  so 
much.  His  "  Edge  of  the  Forest "  at  the 
Corcoran  Gallery,  poetical  and  digni- 
fied in  conception,  is  probably  his  best 
known  picture.  I  once  saw  a  little  sketch 
of  his,  entitled  "  Garden  of  '-Love,"  a 
meadow  lined  with  trees  and  dotted 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  55 

with  figures,  which  was  as  free  in  its 
handling  and  as  fluid  in  its  colour  as  if 
a  modern  Paris  or  Munich  man  had 

tinted  it. 

Also  John  F.  Kensett  (1816-72),  like 
50  many  artists,  was  originally  an  en- 
graver. In  the  forties  he  budded  forth  as 
a  landscapist  and  soon  held  a  commanding 
position,  but  despite  several  years  spent  in 
Europe,  notably  in  Italy,  he  was  technic- 
ally a  mere  amateur.  His  pictures  were 
so  thinly  painted  that  they  almost  appear 
"  flat "  to  us.  Notwithstanding,  his  pic- 
tures, small  compositions  as  a  rule,  pos- 
sessed a  certain  winning  tenderness  and 
suggestiveness,  rare  at  that  period  of  our 
art.  He  and  Sandford  R.  Gifford  were 
the  first  to  strive  for  more  pleasing  colour 
harmonies  and  a  more  careful  observation 
of  atmospheric  changes,  the  play  of  sun- 
light in  the  clouds  and  misty  distances. 
They  lacked  firmness  of  drawing,  and 


56          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

their  love  for  niggling  details   and   the 
brown  tonality  of  their  pictures  disturbs 
us,  although  these  lyrical  attempts  were 
really  forerunners  of  the  modern  school, 
as  it  was  not  so  much  things  as  feelings 
that  they  tried    to    suggest.      In    quiet, 
dreamy  coast  and  Hudson  River  scenes 
Kensett's   talents   were    shown    at    their 
best.     Sandford  R.  Gifford  was  specially 
fond  of  dusky  woodland  scenes,  the  wild 
scenery  of  the   West,   and   the    Hudson 
River,  with  sunset  skies,  glowing  atmos- 
phere, rolling  mists,  and  trailing  vapours. 
Melville    Dewey    represents    the     same 
phase  in  our  present  landscape  art.     One 
might    travel    far    without    having    ever 
an  opportunity  again  to  see  such  a  confu- 
sion of  mists,  winds,  sunshine,  moonlight 
and  showers,  and  irisate  colour  effects  as 
in  Melville  Dewey's  confuse  and  effemi- 
nate pictures. 

The  men  of  this  time,  representing  the 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  57 

so  called  Hudson  River  school,  were  in 
most  cases  self-taught,  and   serious,  con- 
scientious workmen,  with  a  rapturous  en- 
thusiasm for  nature,  and  absolute  freedom 
from  sensationalism.     Commercialism  had 
\  not  yet  interfered  with  art.     Dealers  were 
•N  still   unknown,   and    the    interchange   of 
ideas  still  very  limited. 

Two  men,  effected  more  or  less  by 
these  conditions,  were  George  L.  Brown, 
"of  Boston,  who  devoted  his  art  to  Italian 
-  scenery  and  strove  for  luminosity  of  colour, 
and  Louis  Mignot,  of  South  Carolina,  who 
was  one  of  the  first  to  draw  attention  to 
the  inexhaustible  variety  of  scenery  of  our 
continent.  Mignot  was  one  of  the  most 
skilled  of  our  early  painters  in  the  han- 
dling of  materials,  and  commanded  a  wide 
range  of  subjects,  and,  whether  it  was  the 
glow  of  tropical  scenery  of  the  Rio  Bamba 
in  South  America,  the  rush  of  iris-circled 
water  at  Niagara,  or  the  fairy-like  grace 


58          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

of  new-fallen  snow,  he  was  equally  ambi- 
tious in  rendering  the  varied  aspects  of 
nature.  At  the  opening  of  the  Civil 
War  he  became  a  resident  of  England, 
and  perhaps  his  most  important  picture, 
"  Snow  in  Hyde  Park,"  found  its  place  in 
a  private  gallery  there. 

Minor  artists  of  note  of  that  period 
were,  J.  W.  Casilear,  known  for  his  deli- 
cate finish;  J.  A.  Suydam,  with  his  pen- 
sive bits  of  nature;  S.  L.  Gerry,  whose 
dreamy,  pleasant  "  Valley  of  Pemigewas- 
set "  attracted  considerable  attention  ;  R. 
W.  Hubbard,  with  his  New  England  land- 
scapes ;  C.  P.  Cranch,  a  literatus  by  profes- 
sion, who  showed  in  his  Venetian  pictures 
a  correct  perception  of  colour;  and  J.  R. 
Meeker,  who  made  a  specialty  of  the 
lagoons  of  the  South,  haunted  by  pelicans 
and  gaily  coloured  cranes.  All  these, 
men  show  no  dash  or  ingenuity,  their 
work  is  deficient  in  drawing,  colour,  as 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  59 

well  as  in  tone  quality ;  even  in  composi- 
tion and  chiaroscuro  they  were  not  out  of 
the  ordinary.  They  had  not  yet  learned 
to  wield  their  brushes  with  modern  dex- 
terity, and  still  saw  nature  with  the  eyes 
of  Lorraine.  If  I  mention  their  names 
it  is  largely  because  they,  after  all,  played 
a  part,  however  small,  in  the  development 
of  our  landscape  art.  And  it  can  be  said 
in  their  favour  that  they  approached  their 
subjects  with  a  reverent  and  poetic  spirit 
and  frequently  succeeded  in  making  pic- 
tures that  were  at  least  pleasant  to  look  at. 
More  than  passing  notice  is  deserved  by 
J.  F.  Cropsey  (1823-1900).  I  am  well 
aware  that  his  pictures  have,  of  late,  been 
the  laughing-stock  at  the  Academy  ex- 
hibitions, and  it  is  not  my  object  to  defend 
them.  Yet  it  should  be  recognised  that 
in  his  earlier  career  —  already  in  the  sev- 
enties his  work  did  not  sustain  the  early 
reputation  he  had  justly  acquired  —  his 


6O          A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

style  had  a  certain  crispness,  his  colour 
strength,  and  his  composition  an  archi- 
tectonic sense  (he  started  life  as  an  archi- 
tect) for  the  handling  of  masses.  His 
"  High  Tom,  Rockland  Lake,"  an  autum- 
nal landscape,  with  the  placid  surface 
of  the  lake,  wooded  slopes,  and  a  weird 
light  effect  behind  the  curiously  sloped 
mountain  peaks,  is  a  masterly  composition, 
and  for  many  years  it  served  as  model  for 
the  treatment  of  similar  subjects.  Un- 
doubtedly art  has  changed  since  Cropsey 
was  elected  Academician,  but  I  am  not 
so  certain  whether  many  of  the  younger 
men  of  the  "Society"  will  not  also  be  con- 
sidered Cropseys  twenty  years  hence.  It 
is  ridiculous  to  be  so  narrow-minded  as 
to  believe  only  in  one  school.  Why,  in 
a  few  years,  the  impressionists  will  also 
"be  old  fogies,"  and  lament  over  the  in- 
consistency of  art  instead  of  their  own 
visional  disturbances. 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  6 1 

Those  men,  however,  who  had  some 
individuality  to  express,  no  matter  how 
stunted  it  may  have  been,  certainly  stand 
out,  and  Cropsey  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
them.  He  was  one  of  the  last  exponents 
of  that  early  school  of  landscape  painting, 
which  concentrated  its  faculties  chiefly 
upon  the  choice  of  subject. 

Only  gradually  our  landscape  painters 
began  to  strive  for  a  more  faithful,  photo- 
graphic representation  of  nature,  by  which 
process  they  discovered  that  their  tech- 
nique was  absolutely  insufficient  for  such 
a  task,  and  they  began  to  travel  to  Dussel- 
dorf,  where,  under  the  leadership  of  Les- 
sing,  a  new  landscape  school  had  sprung 
up.  The  exodus  of  our  young  painters 
to  Germany,  in  the  forties,  was  due  largely 
to  the  popularity  the  productions  of  the 
romantic  school  had  attained  in  America. 
Besides,  there  was  no  other  goal  for  the 
art  student ;  Munich  had  only  a  school  of 


62          A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

pedantic  cartoonists,  while  in  Diisseldorf 
the  technique  of  painting  received  some 
consideration,  at  least. 

Lessing  was  a  man  of  decided  abilities. 
He  did  not  Oiily  possess  the  qualities 
necessary  for  a  leader,  but  was  a  genuine 
artist.  His  influence  on  our  art,  however, 
was  rather  injurious.  True  enough,  he 
taught  our  painters  to  draw,  to  make 
most  scrupulous  studies  for  each  impor- 
tant picture,  and  to  analyse  minutely 
the  construction  of  tree  trunks  and 
branches,  of  foliage  and  shrubbery,  but 
his  pictures  were  all  painted  to  please 
the  public,  and  imbued  with  a  disagree- 
able sentimentalism,  which  Carlyle  would 
have  called  "moonshine."  A  few  of  his 
best  pictures,  for  instance  his  "  Eifel- 
landscape,"  possess  a  rare  dramatic  in- 
tensity, yet  the  light  effects  always 
suggest  the  stage.  Lessing  painted  ideas 
like  Cole,  but  with  a  more  perfect  tech- 


o 
U 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  63 

nique,  and  with  a  romantic  instead  of  clas- 
sic tendency.  He  is  also  the  originator 
of  that  peculiar  green-in-green  tonality, 
which  may  be  true  to  nature,  but  which 
is  hardly  ever  artistic  in  its  results.  I  have 
dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  characteris- 
tics of  this  school,  as  its  influence  was 
very  stringent;  even  Inness  could  not 
escape  it,  and,  in  the  sixties,  introduced 
angels  and  monks,  knights  and  pilgrims, 
chapels  and  shrines,  into  his  compositions. 
In  1848  Paul  Weber,  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  school,  came  to  this 
country  and  established  himself  in  Phila- 
delphia, and,  after  refusing  to  paint  for  a 
newly  established  art  gallery  for  eight  dol- 
lars per  week,  he  became  one  of  the  most 
fashionable  painters  of  the  day.  He  was 
a  subject  painter,  exceedingly  amiable  in 
disposition,  with  considerable  technical 
resources,  and  clever  light  effects,  which 
the  French  would  call  chercke  and  raf- 


64          A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

fine.  An  example  of  his  work  hangs  on 
the  walls  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy. 
Among  his  pupils  were  W.  T.  Richards, 
Schiissel,  Shearer,  the  Hart  brothers,  and 
various  skilful  members  of  the  painter's 
own  family. 

For  twenty  years  or  more  the  work  of 
our  painters  showed  the  effect  of  the  for- 
eign method.  A  few  of  them,  true  enough, 
possessed  sufficient  independence  of  ac- 
tion to  enable  them  to  assimilate  rather 
than  imitate,  but  the  pictures  made  under 
the  Diisseldorf  influence  were  hardly  as 
individual  as  those  of  the  preceding  period, 
although  their  workmanship  had  doubtless 
been  improved  by  the  foreign  technique. 
.  Worthington  Whittredge  and  R.  M. 
Shurtleff  became  the  faithful  delineators 
of  wood  interiors,  with  the  sunlight  filter- 
ing through  the  foliage,  and  their  pictures 
have  been  prominent  on  the  walls  of  the 
Academy  to  this  very  day.  William  and 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  65 

Jarfies  Hart  also  identified  themselves  with 
this  vert  bete  movement,  cattle  they  only 
added  to  their  landscape  in  later  years. 
Many  others  worked  in  the  same  vein,  but 
their  names  do  not  need  to  be  mentioned. 
They  showed  a  keen  perception  for  the 
beauties  of  the  slopes  and  vales  and  woods 
of  our  rural  districts,  but  the  effect  was 
generally  marked  by  hardness  and  lack  of 
warmth.  Edward  Gay  (1837-  )  is  one 
of  the  few  of  the  old  school  who  suc- 
ceeded in  shaking  off  the  trammels  of 
early  art  and  kept  themselves  in  line  with 
the  progressive  spirit  of  our  landscape  art. 
His  "  Broad  Acres,"  for  which  he  received 
the  two  thousand  dollar  prize  at  the  com- 
petitive exhibition  of  the  American  Art 
Association  in  1-887,  *s  a^  the  Metropolitan 
Museum.  The  most  important  represen- 
tative of  this  school  was  perhaps  W.  L. 
Sonntag  (1822-1900).  He  developed  by 
the  means  of  a  peculiar  fibrous  brush  work 


66          A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

a  style  of  his  own.  His  pictures  display 
an  attractive  vigour  and  freshness  of 
execution. 

Besides  DUsseldorf,  England,  in  partic- 
ular the  Norwich  school,  in  which  the 
weather-beaten  trees,  old  woods,  deserted 
huts,  and  wastes  of  heath  of  Old  Crome 
were  so  prominent,  began  to  exert  an 
influence  on  our  own  art.  Constable  had 
no  followers  at  that  early  date.  He  died  in 
1837,  and  his  pictures  only  became  known 
in  the  forties  and  fifties  when  the  Barbi- 
zon  school  was  already  flourishing.  David 
Johnson,  with  his  rich,  massive  brush  work, 
faintly  suggested  the  strength  of  the  Nor- 
wich men.  J.  B.  Bristol  imitated  the  more 
delicate  phases  of  their  art  in  the  dreamy 
pastoral  meadows,  craggy  uplands,  and 
dimpling  lakes  of  our  Green  Mountains, 
veiled  by  luminous  cloud  effects.  A.  F. 
Bellows,  on  the  other  hand,  attempted  mi- 
nute transcripts  of  the  idyllic  side  of  our 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  67 

rural  life.  His  attractive  village  pictures, 
in  oil  and  aquarelle,  dotted  with  New 
England  elms  and  groups  of  figures,  se- 
cured him  the  title  of  the  American  Birket 
Foster.  Chas.  H.  Miller  and  P.  V.  Berry 
still  represent  this  movement  to-day.  The 
former  has  deservedly  won  a  place  in 
public  favour. 

The  greatest  evil  of  the  Diisseldorf 
movement,  its  false  note  of  sentimental- 
ism,  was  avoided  by  most  of  the  land- 
scape painters  (which  cannot  be  said  of 
the  figure  painters,  treated  in  another 
chapter).  The  American  mind  was  too 
matter-of-fact,  and  too  much  interested  in 
its  country  to  lose  itself  in  idle  dreams. 
These  two  qualities  gradually  invested  the 
artists  with  the  power  to  stamp  individu- 
ality of  expression  upon  their  canvases, 
and  caused  their  successors  to  develop 
into  the  foremost  landscape  painters  of 
the  world,  next  to  those  of  France. 


68          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Again  another  impetus  was  felt  toward 
the  middle  of  this  century.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  gold  mines  of  California 
was  a  signal  for  enterprise,  not  only  to 
commerce,  but  also  to  the  literature  and 
to  the  landscape  art  of  the  United 
States.  Thousands  of  enterprising  men, 
beside  themselves  with  excitement,  at 
once  started  for  the  gold  regions,  down 
to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  up  along 
the  western  coast,  or  slowly  moved  in 
trains  of  wagons  and  ox-carts  overland 
across  the  country.  Taylor  and  Scott 
conquered  the  Pacific,  the  explorer  Fre- 
mont pointed  out  the  swelling  ranges  of 
the  mountains,  and  our  painters  began  to 
reveal  to  us  the  peaks  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  the  glory  of  the  Columbia 
River,  and  the  wonders  of  the  Yellow- 
stone Park.  Their  great  compositions 
threw  the  people  into  an  ecstasy  of  de- 
light, which,  at  this  time,  is  difficult  to 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  69 

understand.  Artists  like  Albert  Bier- 
stadt  and  Hill  bounded,  at  one  step,  into 
popularity. 

These  painters  had  lofty  conceptions, 
but  not  ability  sufficient  to  render  them 
into  art ;  perhaps  no  one  can  master  the 
scenic  glories  of  the  West.  At  any  rate, 
it  would  take  a  sort  of  Michael  Angelo  — 
gigantic  conceptions  of  a  gigantic  mind 
—  to  do  justice  to  such  stupendous  tasks. 
The  smaller  pictures  of  these  explorers  of 
the  West  were  generally  by  far  more  valu- 
able for  their  artistic  qualities  than  the 
larger  ones,  by  which  they  became  pop- 
ular. 

Pictures  like  Bierstadt's  "  Rocky  Moun- 
tains," Hill's  "Yosemite  Valley,"  and 
Thomas  Moran's  "Gorge  of  the  Yellow- 
stone" (at  the  Capitol)  look  very  much 
like  gigantic  chromo-lithographs  to  us. 

The  only  technical  benefit  we  gained 
by  it  was  the  mastery  of  perspective  and 


7O          A   HISTORY    OF    AMERICAN    ART. 

a  constructive  power,  which  found  its 
strongest  interpreter  in  Thomas  Moran 
(1837-  ).  Our  Western  scenery,  with 
its  clear  atmosphere  which  preserves  every 
aerial  gradation,  making  it  possible  to  see 
patches  of  snow  on  the  forest  line  of 
mountains  at  a  distance  of  ten  miles, 
encouraged  perspective  views  and  a  closer 
observation  of  the  architecture  of  nature, 
and  the  whole  profession  profited  by  it. 
And  that  these  men  taught  us  to  appre- 
ciate the  beauties  of  our  own  countries  is 
their  final  everlasting  merit.  It  was  the 
reason  why  we  succumbed  neither  to  the 
Diisseldorf  platitudes,  nor  lost  ourselves  in 
sheer  imitation  of  the  Belgian  school. 

Frederick  E.  Church  (1826-1900),  born 
at  Hartford,  Conn.,  was  the  first  to  explore 
the  vastnesses  of  our  country.  And  he 
did  not  limit  himself  to  the  West,  but 
roamed  through  South  American  wilds 
as  well  as  classic  lands  on  the  Mediter- 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  7 1 

ranean  shores.  A  pupil  of  Cole,  he  has 
carried  to  full  fruition  the  aspiration  of 
his  master,  and  occupied  the  same  high 
place  in  the  second  period  of  our  land- 
scape art  as  the  painter  of  "  Desolation  " 
did  in  the  first.  He  also  gained  his  first 
inspirations  along  the  shores  of  the  Hud- 
son and  amid  the  beautiful  regions  of  the 
legendary  Catskills.  He  was  infinitely 
closer  to  nature  than  his  master,  but  she 
only  interested  him  in  her  little  known 
and  more  remarkable  and  startling  effects. 
He  had  no  conception  whatever  of  the 
paysage  intime.  He  drew  to  himself 
the  spoils,  the  riches,  the  splendour  of 
the  whole  round  globe,  and  yet  all  his 
pictures  are  noteworthy  for  an  absence  of 
sensationalism  and  staginess,  from  which 
even  Inness  is  not  always  free.  The  only 
fault  we  can  find  with  them  is  a  somewhat 
too  careful  reproduction  of  details,  which, 
however,  has  not  prevented  him  from 


72          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

massing  his  effects  to  rare  beauty  and 
even  sublimity. 

A  picture  like  his  "  Niagara"  (1857)  at 
the  Corcoran  Gallery  disarms  criticism. 
The  green  flood  pours  into  an  abyss 
veiled  by  mist.  The  sky  is  of  a  rosy 
gray,  the  distant  shore  is  lined  with  the 
glowing  tints  of  October  foliage,  and 
the  ethereal  vision  of  a  rainbow  unites 
heaven  and  earth,  —  indeed,  a  picture 
before  which  one  can  pause  in  pensive 
dreams.  What  majesty  there  is  inx  the 
strangely  illumined  peak  of  the  Cay- 
ambe  ('58)  at  the  Lenox  Library!  It 
radiates  the  inner  light  of  the  restless, 
ever  unsatisfied  soul  of  a  genius,  born  at 
a  time  when  few  painters  painted  really 
well,  and  who  himself,  self  trained  as  he 
was,  could  never  overcome  the  technical 
weakness  of  his  school. 

What  an  epic  of  the  grander  aspects 
of  the  external  world  is  nevertheless  his 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  73 


Sea!"  What  noble  sympathy 
with  nature  is  shown  in  this  vast  Claude 
Lorraine  like  expanse  of  land  and  water, 
in  the  snow-covered  peaks  of  the  distant 
mountain  range,  the  shore  dotted  with 
columns  and  ruins  of  palaces,  and  the  two 
rainbows  which  spurt  geyser-like  into  the 
sky. 

True,  he  was  not  one  of  the  masters  of 
the  brush,  but  he  painted  well  enough  to 
express  with  charm  as  well  as  clearness 
the  impressions  he  received,  and  these 
were  the  impressions  of  a  very  individual 
artist.  Had  his  growth  been  assisted 
by  stronger  outside  influences,  he  would 
doubtlessly  have  reached  superior  tech- 
nical skill  ;  but  something  of  the  person- 
ality of  his  manner  might  have  perished. 
So  we  are  content  with  his  shortcomings, 
as  the  verdict  is  still  a  very  high  one. 
W.  H.  Osborn,  Newark,  N.  J.,  owns 
Church's  "  Chimborazo,"  "  Andes  of  Ecua- 


74          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

dor,"  "  Tropical  Moonlight,"  and  " 

Sea."     His  "Cotopaxi"  is  at  the  Lenox 

Library. 

While  Church  taught  the  people  to 
love  beauty  and  to  find  it  among  the 
remotest  regions,  the  fever  of  the  Cali- 
fornia rush  had  not  yet  subsided,  and  it 
was  the  desire  of  every  ambitious  artist  to 
take  life  into  his  hands  and  explore  the 
West.  Walter  Shirlaw  made  a  Western 
trip  in  1859,  and  Thomas  Moran  stayed 
for  many  months  among  the  titanic  gorges 
of  the  Yellowstone  River  and  the  lurid 
splendour  of  its  sulphurous  cliffs  and 
steaming  geysers.  The  latter  is  a  man  of 
fervid  imagination,  and  unrivalled  in  am- 
bitious compositions  that  cover  a  vast 
territory.  His  knowledge  of  form  and 
constructive  ability  is  quite  remarkable, 
and  his  skill  in  compositions  reveals  it- 
self best  in  the  black  and  white  reproduc- 
tions of  his  works.  His  Venetian  scenes 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  75 

are    too    Turneresque   to   be   considered 
more  than  clever  adaptations. 

Next  to  Church,  Thomas  Hill,  of  Taun- 
ton,  Mass.,  originally  a  coach  painter,  be- 
came the  leading  representative  of  this 
school.  Although  his  wood  interiors  of 
Fontainebleau  are  perhaps  his  best,  his 
name  in  the  future  will  always  be  iden- 
tified with  California.  He  became  the 
painter  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
the  Yosemite  Valley,  those  regions 
where  "  the  roar  of  the  whirlwind  and 
the  noise  of  thunder  reverberated  like  the 
tread  of  the  countless  millions  who  ever- 
more moved  westwards."  Hill  has  taken 
no  liberties  with  his  subjects,  but  has 
endeavoured  to  convey  a  correct  impres- 
sion of  the  scenery.  He  found  a  worthy 
successor  in  W.  Keith,  since  his  twenty- 
first  year  a  resident  of  San  Francisco. 
One  of  his  best  pictures,  "  Mount  Hood, 
Oregon,"  is  at  the  Brooklyn  Institute.  In 


76          A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

his  smaller  work  he  shows  at  times  a  good 
deal  of  imaginative  fancy.  Charles  Rollo 
Peters  represents  the  California  scenery 
with  a  technique  that  shows  the  charac- 
teristics of  current  art.  In  his  moon- 
lights he  sees  nature  with  the  eyes  of  a 
poet. 

Our  landscape  painters  had,  by  this 
time,  become  masters  of  drawing,  con- 
struction, perspective,  composition,  and 
chiaroscuro,  their  sense  of  colour  had 
also  grown  more  pronounced,  but  their 
pictures  still  lacked  tonality.  The  impor- 
tance of  local  values  was  still  overlooked, 
the  brush  work  still  very  monotonous, 
and  the  picture  itself  without  suggestive 
qualities. 

In  1865  a  collection  of  English  water- 
colours  was  exhibited  in  New  York.  It 
attracted  much  attention,  and  although  a 
few  artists  like  J.  M.  Falconer  had  already 
used  the  medium  here,  this  seems  to  have 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  77 

been  the  first  incentive  to  our  artists  to 
devote  themselves  seriously  to  water- 
colour  painting.  A  society  headed  by 
such  men  as  Samuel  Coleman  and 
Swain  Gifford  was  formed,  and  a  school 
of  artists,  finding  expression  wholly  in 
water-colours,  like  Henry  Farrar,  sprung 
up. 

Samuel  Colman  was  one  of  our  first 
painters  of  Oriental  phenomena.  He 
spent  many  years  in  Spain,  Morocco, 
France,  Italy,  and  Switzerland.  His  pic- 
tures r  were  noteworthy  for  their  sweet 
and  harmonious  colouring  and  pictur- 
esque composition.  Henry  Farrar  be- 
longed to  a  little  clan  of  artists  and 
literati,  including  Clarence  Cook  and 
Charles  Eliot  Norton,  who  posed  as 
Preraphaelites,  although  they  had  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  English  school 
but  their  loving  study  of  details,  and  the 
publication  of  a  magazine,  The  New 


78          A   HISTORY  OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Path,  in  imitation  of  The  Germ.  They 
had  chosen  the  same  region  which  had 
inspired  the  first  landscape  school  in 
America,  the  Catskills,  as  headquarters, 
and  there  the  best  work  of  Farrar,  Chas. 
Moore,  and  the  two  Hills,  father  and  son, 
was  executed. 

About  1860  the  fame  and  the  glory 
of  the  Barbizon  school  began  to  excite 
American  artists,  and  under  its  rejuvenat- 
ing influence  the  Rocky  Mountain  school 
soon  paled  into  insignificance.  Thomas 
Moran  and  Hill  still  continued  to  be 
ardent  partisans  of  this  school,  but  with 
the  exception  of  Keith,  Horace  Robbins, 
successful  in  seizing  certain  aspects  of 
mountain  scenery,  James  and  George 
Smillie,  with  their  delightful  facility  in 
handling  colour,  and  a  younger  painter 
by  the  name  of  Parshall,  who  approaches 
these  subjects  with  the  spirit  and  treat- 
ment of  the  modern  landscape  school, 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  79 

little  of  note  has  been  done  during  the 
last  forty  years. 

The  new  school  was  of  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent character.  The  Hudson  River  and 
Rocky  Mountain  schools  had  dealt  wholly 
with  externals,  and  the  subject  had  been 
the  first  and  last  end  sought ;  now  nature 
itself,  the  poetry  and  mystery  of  its  simpler 
moods,  became  the  leading  motive  of  our 
landscape  art. 

Michel,  Millet,  Rousseau,  Dupre,  and 
Corot,  each  having  a  style  that  can  be 
distinguished  at  the  first  glance,  had  one 
trait  in  common.  They  sought  to  sug- 
gest the  symbolical  meaning  which  the 
human  mind  associates  with  the  aspects 
of  hills  and  skies,  of  autumnal  woods  and 
lonely  ponds  and  moorlands  fading  into 
space.  They  saw  in  nature  moods  in 
sympathy  with  the  human  soul. 

There  were  two  men  who  painted  land- 
scapes in  a  way  which  could  hardly  be 


8O          A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

understood  at  that  period,  when  size  was 
one  of  the  implements  to  success,  Elihu 
Vedder  and  A.  P.  Ryder.  The  first  was 
in  his  early  landscapes  more  of  a  painter 
than  ever  afterward,  when  his  canvases 
gained  more  and  more  an  illustrative  qual- 
ity. Compositions  like  "  The  Refuge  "  are 
full  of  deep  suggestions  and  weird  attempts 
in  psychology  of  colour.  Ryder,  although 
largely  known  as  an  interpreter  of  the 
poetic  in  paint,  has  achieved  many  of  his 
earlier  successes  in  landscapes.  One  must 
gaze  at  his  "  Lowlands  near  Highbridge  " 
to  know  how  well  he  understood  how  to 
endow  a  single  subject  with  rare  suggest- 
iveness.  Another  picture  I  remember 
represents  an  old  country  house  with 
light  glowing  in  the  casements.  They 
are  notable  for  their  mellowness  of  tone 
and  severity  of  composition.  In  many 
of  his  recent  paintings  the  landscape  also 
plays  the  most  prominent  part,  but  pure 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  83 

landscapes  are  becoming  rather  rare  with 
him.  The  last  to  leave  his  studio  was  his 
"  Forest  of  Arden,"  finished  in  1897. 

These  two  men  represented  the  imagi- 
native landscape,  which  only  existed  in 
their  own  fancies.  The  true  artist,  unlike 
the  commonplace  painter,  who  shows 
us  things  that  we  have  seen  and  felt 
in  the  same  way  ourselves,  selects  more 
subtle  and  yet  more  typical  facts,  ex- 
plains them  with  poetic  fervour,  shows 
us  things  which  we  have  probably  not 
noticed  before,  and  makes  them  for  ever 
ours.  But  this  can  also  be  accomplished 
by  a  more  truthful  and  poetical  render- 
ing of  local  scenery;  at  this  task  Jervis 
McEntee  (1828-91)  put  himself.  His 
gray  melancholy  autumnal  scenes,  wild 
reaches  of  russet  woodland,  with  skurry- 
ing  clouds,  are  true  to  nature,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  a  reflection  of  his  tempera- 
ment. His  art  sings  in  a  low  minor  key, 


84          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

that  finds  response  in  our  heart.  His 
compositions  have  already  that  harmony 
of  line  and  masses  which  distinguishes 
the  Barbizon  school.  To  the  left,  in  the 
middle  distance,  a  pond,  bordered  by  two 
trees  with  autumn  foliage,  two  smaller 
masses  of  shrubbery  of  similar  shape,  as 
accompaniment,  behind  it  wooded  ranges 
which  slope  down  to  the  right  affording  a 
vista  of  the  sky ;  to  the  right,  in  the  fore- 
ground, some  vegetation  sprinkled  with 
flowers,  from  which  a  defoliated  tree  rises 
in  an  oblique  line  against  the  sky.  That 
is  an  example  of  his  style  of  composition. 
His  outlines,  modelling,  local  colours  were 
still  far  from  perfect,  but  the  general  effect 
of  his  elegies  of  falling  leaves  was  a  de- 
cided advance  toward  perfection.  The 
disagreeable  green  at  last  began  to  dis- 
appear from  the  canvases.  Landscape 
art  consisted,  as  Edmond  About  wrote, 
"in  choosing  well  a  bit  of  country,  and 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  85 

painting  it  as  it  is,  enclosing  in  its  frame 
all  the  naive  and  simple  poetry  which  it 
contains."  0  Hamilton  Hamilton  painted 
his  woodland  scenes  with  cattle  browsing 
in  the  rich  meadows,  Swain  Gifford  his 
picturesque  views  of  the  Massachusetts 
coast,  and  Donoghue  Rogers  depicted  au- 
tumnal forest  scenes  at  times  with  such 
poetic  truth  that  our  ears  seemed  filled 
with  the  soft  rustling  of  the  leaves. 

Paris  now  became  the  centre  of  attrac- 
tion, and  the  advantages  our  landscape 
art  gained  thereby  were  shown  in  two 
artists,  W.  L.  Picknell  and  Charles  H. 
Davis,  who  were  competent  technicians. 
W.  L.  Picknell  (1853-97)  strove  for  brutal 
truth,  he  joined  the  school  of  open-air 
workers,  and  painted  his  pictures  directly 
from  nature.  His  "  On  the  Borders  of  the 
Marsh"  —  a  November  day  in  a  Brittany 
field,  with  the  characteristic  gnarled  trees, 
overgrown  with  ivy  and  mistletoe,  and 


86          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

the  broad  earthen  fences  peculiar  to  that 
region  —  is  most  vigorous  in  its  treatment, 
and  peculiar  for  the  way  in  which  he 
encrusted  the  surface  of  the  picture  with 
thick  lumps  of  paint.  Later  on  he  modi- 
fied this  crude  appearance  of  his  brush 
work,  and  in  his  "  Road  to  Concarneau," 
which  attracted  great  attention  at  the 
Paris  Exhibition  of  1880,  and  "  In  Cali- 
fornia," it  is  entirely  subordinated  to  his 
sole  desire  of  depicting  nature  just  as  it 
is.  To  suggest  anything  beyond  topo- 
graphical and  atmospheric  truths  lay 
beyond  his  powers.  He  excels  in  the 
illusion  which  he  can  give  of  reality ;  and 
his  beach  scenes,  white  sand  basking  in 
the  glowing  sun,  impress  at  the  first 
glance  like  reality  itself. 

Charles  H.  Davis  (1856-  )  is  his  very 
antipode.  He  also  cares  for  reality,  but 
it  is  not  his  principal  aim ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  subordinates  it  entirely  to  those 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  89 

qualities  which  arouse  sentiment  in  the 
spectator.  He  wants  his  pictures  of 
Night  and  Twilight  to  impress  like  night 
and  twilight  itself.  At  the  Paris  Annual 
Exhibition  of  1878  he  covered  himself 
with  glory  with  his  four  pictures,  "  Un 
Soir  d'Hiver,"  "  Le  Soir  apres  L'Orage," 
"Le  Versant  de  la  Colline,"  and  "La 
Vallee  en  le  Soir ; "  in  particular  the 
latter  one,  which  represented  a  green 
valley,  invaded  by  the  all-encroaching 
gloom  of  twilight,  with  a  white  cloud 
stealing  softly  over  the  expanse  of  ver- 
dure. The  melancholy  of  stillness  and 
the  mystery  of  night  are  perfectly  ren- 
dered. His  pictures  are  at  once  realistic 
and  lyrical,  and  infused  with  the  same 
emotions  that  they  provoke  in  the  soul 
of  the  spectators.  He  proved  himself  a 
strong  personality,  and  gave  promise  to 
be  one  of  our  greatest  landscapists.  His 
later  work,  more  realistic  and  less  lyrical, 


90          A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

which  he  now  and  then  sends  forth  from 
his  reclusory  in  Mystic,  Conn.,  hardly 
comes  up  to  the  work  by  which  we  know 
him  best:  his  "Late  Afternoon"  at  the 
New  York  Union  League  Club,  "The 
Brook"  at  the  Philadelphia  Academy, 
and  the  "Evening"  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum. 

A  decided  step  in  advance  was  made 
by  A.  H.  Wyant  (1836-92),  born  at  Port 
Washington,  Ohio.  Less  subjective  and 
morbid  than  McEntee,  but  moved  by 
similar  motives,  Wyant  displayed  a  sym- 
pathy with  nature  and  a  masterful  skill 
in  depicting  subtle  effects  which  place 
him  among  the  first  landscape  painters 
of  the  age.  In  the  suggestive  rendering 
of  space  and  colour,  of  the  multitudinous 
phases  of  a  bit  of  waste  land,  or  mountain 
glen,  or  sedgy  brook-side,  simple  enough 
at  first  sight,  but  full  of  infinite  unob- 
trusive beauty,  he  was  unsurpassed.  His 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  93 

pictures  are  equally  distinguished  by 
truth,  vigour,  and  delicacy,  and  by  their 
breadth  of  feeling  and  poetic  treatment. 
There  is  a  spirit  in  Wyant's  pictures 
akin  to  that  found  in  Corot's  works, 
noticeably  in  the  vague  melancholy  and 
dreamy  tenderness,  a  reflection  of  the 
inner  life  of  the  artist,  which  pervades 
the  multitude  of  details,  he  managed  to 
introduce  without  harming  the  central 
and  prevailing  idea.  He  was  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  paysage  intime  and  one  of 
its  truest  exponents.  Occasionally  his 
work  shows  traces  of  foreign  influence, 
principally  Dupre  and  Corot,  but  he  was 
an  artist  of  too  much  original  power,  a 
too  careful  observer  of  nature,  to  have 
been  under  any  necessity  to  stunt  himself 
by  the  imitation  of  another  artist,  however 
great.  He  struck  with  marvellous  preci- 
sion the  point  between  the  real  and  ideal, 
where  we  still  accept  a  picture  as  a 


94          A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

faithful  transcript  of  nature  and  yet  are 
charmed  by  its  poetic  suggestiveness. 
His  dexterity  of  handling,  however,  did 
not  always  suffice.  Several  of  his  pic- 
tures can  be  seen  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum. 

In  the  meanwhile,  George  Inness 
(1825-97),  wno  is  generally  considered 
our  greatest  landscape  painter,  and  which 
honour  he  undoubtedly  shares  with 
Homer  Martin  and  D.  W.  Tryon,  had 
bravely  struggled  for  recognition.  In 
1875,  at  the  age  of  fifty,  he  was  still  un- 
known. At  last  in  about  1878  he  began 
to  be  appreciated,  whereupon  he  rapidly 
climbed  the  ladder  of  fame.  His  pictures 
brought  enormous  prices,  and  the  rapidity 
with  which  their  value  increased  can  best 
be  noticed  in  his  "  A  Gray  Lowery  Day," 
which  he  sold  for  three  hundred  dollars  in 
1879,  and  which  was  purchased  by  Henry 
Sampson,  Esq.,  for  $10,150  in  1889. 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  95 

Inness  was  born  at  Newburgh,  N.  Y. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  Regis  Gignoux,  a 
Frenchman  who  had  a  great  admiration 
for  the  Barbizon  school.  In  1846  Inness 
set  himself  up  in  a  studio  in  New  York, 
and  in  1850  went  abroad,  where  he  became 
acquainted  with  Corot  and  Rousseau,  and 
enjoyed  for  a  time  the  close  companion- 
ship of  Millet. 

The  paintings  of  his  youth  bore  the 
marks  of  the  Hudson  River  school ;  they 
look  pedantic  and  laboured,  and  are  over- 
crowded with  details.  Only  now  and 
then  a  burst  of  light  revealed  the  genius 
struggling  for  expression.  His  second 
style  seems  to  have  caused  him  great 
difficulties;  there  is  a  period  in  which 
his  genius  was  under  a  cloud,  when  he 
chose  various  of  his  popular  contem- 
poraries as  his  models.  From  these 
recollections  and  uncertainties  he  freed 
himself  only  gradually,  learning  step  by 


96          A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

step  to  seek  inspiration  in  himself  alone. 
The  latter  period  is  the  only  one  which 
interests  the  art  critic. 

A  visit  to  the  gallery  of  R.  H.  Halsted, 
which  was  sold  at  auction  in  1895,  was  a 
revelation  to  every  art  lover.  In  the 
works  of  no  other  artist  do  we  find  such 
feeling  for  the  poetry  of  our  country  and 
perfection  of  representation  united  to  the 
same  degree.  With  admirable  drawing  he 
combined  a  knowledge  of  chiaroscuro  in 
its  most  multifarious  aspects,  a  colouring 
powerful  and  warm,  and  a  mastery  of  the 
brush  which,  while  never  too  smooth  on 
the  surface,  ranges  from  the  tenderest, 
most  minute  touch  to  the  broadest,  freest, 
and  most  liquid  execution.  His  work  was 
always  very  uneven,  because  he  was  first 
of  all  an  artist  who  made  use  of  his  land- 
scapes to  express  his  own  moods  and 
dreams ;  he  put  in  them  his  own  feelings, 
like  Homer  Martin,  only  the  latter  was  a 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  97 

painter  of  his  own  bitterness  and  weari- 
ness of  life  which  he  managed  at  times  to 
transfer  into  a  style  of  beauty  and  repose, 
while  Inness  made  his  picture  reflect 
more  the  mental  condition,  the  imagin- 
ings derived  from  the  study  of  other  arts. 
He  expressed  through  landscapes  those 
obscure  but  powerful  emotions  which,  for 
want  of  a  better  term,  we  call  the  dramatic 
in  art. 

He  delighted  especially  in  represent- 
ing a  wide  expanse  of  land,  which  was 
always  a  trait  of  the  best  of  American 
landscapes.  He  had  the  widest  range  of 
subjects  at  his  command,  he  was  inter- 
ested in  every  phase  of  scenery,  he  loved 
every  season  and  every  hour  of  the  day, 
and  grew  enthusiastic  over  every  aspect 
of  nature,  from  the  simplest  to  the  most 
startling  phenomena.  The  titles  of  his 
pictures,  "  Georgia  Pines,"  "  Sunset  on  the 
Passaic,"  "  The  Wood  Gatherer,"  "  After 


\ 


98          A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

a  Summer  Shower,"  "  The  Delaware  Val- 
ley," "  Winter  Morning  at  Montclair,"  etc., 
show  best  the  variety  of  his  subjects.  His 
art  is  rather  difficult  to  study  now ;  form- 
erly it  was  owned  by  a  few  men  like 
Messrs.  Clark,  Halsted,  etc.,  but  lately  has 
been  considerably  .scattered,  the  public 
galleries  having  but  little  to  show  of  his 
best  work. 

Unlike  McEntee,  who,  whenever  he  in- 
troduced figures  into  his  landscapes,  repre- 
sented them  as  struggling  against  some 
unrelenting  destiny,  Inness  used  them 
merely  as  incidents,  as  parts  of  the  whole- 
ness of  nature.  He  was  most  attracted  by 
idyllic  scenes  and  the  calmer  moods  of 
nature,  and,  although  he  needed  threaten- 
ing skies  and  wild  tempests  to  give  full 
play  to  his  dramatic  temperament,  he  care- 
fully avoided  all  sinister  appalling  spec- 
tacles, from  which,  if  encountered  in 
reality,  one  might  flee  with  a  shudder  of 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  99 

horror  and  alarm.  The  note  of  sublimity 
was  very  seldom  sounded  in  our  landscape 
art,  and  then  only  in  scenes  of  silent  and 
peaceful  grandeur. 

Inness  idealised  all  his  creations  with 
his  magical  light  effects.  Such  deep 
luminous  lights  had  never  been  seen 
before  on  American  canvases. 

Ever  since  the  sixties  he  poured  over 
all  his  canvases  a  dazzling  radiance, 
which  at  times  seems  almost  unearthly. 
His  pictures  glow  with  strange  and  noble 
harmonies,  of  the  sun  struggling  through 
clouds  after  a  shower  of  rain,  with  rain- 
bows of  ineffable  beauty,  with  the  glow 
of  chariots  of  fire  that  race  through  the 
evening  sky. 

He  worked  like  a  virtuoso,  always 
trying  to  realise  the  original  inspiration 
in  one  daring  effort,  which  he  usually 
carried  to  a  certain  state  of  perfection, 
and  if  it  did  not  please  him  in  that  state, 


IOO       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

he  did  not  start  over  again,  but  at  once 
tackled  a  new  idea.  He  did  not  allow 
himself  the  time  to  work  on  one  canvas 
for  years,  slowly  maturing  the  idea.  His 
ardent  temperament  was  always  in  the 
search  for  something  new,  and  this  fever- 
ish haste  often  made  his  work  appear 
melodramatic,  and  induced  him  to  apply 
mannerisms  of  glazing  and  scumbling 
bright  colour  over  darker  ones,  which 
otherwise  might  have  been  avoided. 

Few  have  carried  the  landscape  to  such 
a  pitch  of  art  as  has  George  Inness.  He 
became  in  his  old  age  a  marvellously 
dexterous  painter,  especially  proficient  in 
rendering  sunlight  with  a  brilliancy  never 
surpassed.  Then  he  became  a  master  of 
atmosphere,  in  which  he  had  been  merely 
great  before,  and  added  the  poetry  of 
colour  to  the  perfection  of  drawing. 

But  the  last  word  had  not  yet  been 
said.  Our  landscape  art  was  still  in  the 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  IOI 

ascent,  and  Homer  Martin  and  D.  W. 
Tryon  were  the  men  who  brought  it  to  its 
highest  pinnacle  of  perfection.  The  in- 
novation of  impressionism,  however,  was 
necessary  toward  this  steady  progress. 
Manet,  Monet,  Renoir,  Sisley,  and  Pissaro 
had  painted  their  mosaics  of  open-air 
tones.  For  years  they  had  had  no  other 
outlet  for  their  works  than  the  gallery  of 
Durand-Ruel,  when  at  last,  about  1885, 
the  public  began  to  find  them  "  less  bad." 
A  visit  to  one  of  their  exhibitions  was  like 
stepping  out  of  a  room  into  the  sun. 
Colours  of  such  violence  and  vibrating 
joy  had  never  been  seen  before.  One  felt 
as  if  standing  in  the  midst  of  a  fire,  with 
lambent  flames  on  all  sides.  Painting 
had  been  blind,  and  now  opened  its  eyes 
for  the  first  time.  It  had  lived  in  dark- 
ness, and  now  suddenly  saw  the  sun 
rising. 

And  these   colour-orgies   triumphantly 


IO2        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

entered  the  studios  of  all  countries,  and 
proved  a  particular  stimulant  to  landscape 
painting,  by  heightening  the  "  key  "  of  all 
succeeding  productions.  The  Americans 
were  quick  in  recognising  the  merits  of  this 
movement,  but  it  remained  more  or  less 
an  experiment  with  them.  They  adopted 
neither  the  dots  of  the  pointillists,  put  on 
in  huge  wafers,  the  pear-shaped  spots  of 
the  poirists,  the  commas  of  Monet,  the 
streaks  of  Besnard,  nor  the  cross-hatchings 
of  Raffaelli,  but  modified  one  or  the  other 
method,  or  a  combination  of  several  to 
their  special  use.  Enneking,  the  late 
Jacob  Wagner,  E.  Barnard,  and  Hayden, 
of  Boston,  Shearer,  of  Philadelphia,  Taylor, 
E.  Lawson,  Meteyard,  and  W.  Robinson 
are  some  of  the  disciples  of  impressionism, 
whom  I  have  encountered  in  this  country. 
Childe  Hassam  applies  at  times  the 
genuine  Monet  technique  to  great  advan- 
tage. He  is  undoubtedly  our  foremost 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  103 

impressionist  since  the  decease  of  Theo- 
dore Robinson. 

Theodore  Robinson  (1852-96)  was 
strictly  termed  a  neo-impressionist.  He 
accepted  the  innovation  of  colour,  light, 
and  moving  life,  and  the  impressionist 
theory  that  the  first  consciousness  we  re- 
ceive of  an  object  consists  of  a  confusion 
of  colour  dots.  But  he  painted  merely  in 
prismatic  colour  strokes,  varying  in  size 
according  to  the  subject.  A  broad  mass 
of  colour  seemed  opaque  to  him,  and 
only  a  juxtaposition  of  pure  colour  spots 
capable  of  vibration  and  life.  He  spent 
the  years  1884-88  with  Monet,  at  Gi- 
verney,  and  then  returned  to  this  country, 
devoting  himself  to  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  River  Canal  scenery.  What 
correct,  accomplished  prose  that  man 
wrote  with  his  brush !  One  has  only  to 
look  at  his  "  A  Bridge  "  at  John  Gellatly's 
gallery,  at  the  exquisite  nude  in  the  pos- 


IO4       A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

session  of  Doctor  Kelsey,  N.  Y.,  at  his 
"  In  the  Sunlight "  at  the  Grand  Union 
Hotel,  N.  Y.,  and  his  "Hudson  River 
Canal,"  refused  by  the  Metropolitan  Mu- 
seum, to  which  it  was  offered  as  a  gift. 
How  concise  he  was  in  his  mannerisms, 
and  what  vital  studies  he  painted  with 
his  sick  and  wasted  body,  for  he  was  an 
incurable  invalid.  He  executed  no  com- 
monplace transcripts  of  nature,  but  can- 
vases which  glow  and  vibrate  with  nature 
itself,  or,  in  other  words,  pictures  which 
give  one  the  same  impression  that  a  real 
sunlight  scene  does  at  the  first  glance. 
He  was  the  most  robust  craftsman  of  this 
school  we  have  had  in  America. 

A  peculiar  phenomenon  in  our  art  is 
presented  by  Maria  a  Becket,  who,  in 
moods  of  religious  ecstasy,  with  so  in- 
tense an  energy  as  to  raise  blisters  at  her 
finger-tips,  paints  impressionistic  sketches 
which  would  have  gained  her  a  reputation 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  105 

in  Europe  long  ago.  Although  she  is  of 
frail  build,  she  has  the  vigorous  touch  of  a 
man.  After  having  associated  with  men 
like  Homer  Martin,  W.  M.  Hunt,  and 
Daubigny,  she  invented  a  pallet-knife 
style  of  her  own,  in  which  she  slaps  on 
pure  colours  in  a  wild  improvisator*  fash- 
ion. Her  range  of  subjects  embraces  all 
zones  and  atmospheric  phenomena.  Her 
strongest  pictures,  however,  depict  live- 
oaks  spreading  their  vast  arms  like 
groined  arches  of  Gothic  cathedrals,  fes- 
tooned with  the  mystically  trailing  folds 
of  the  Spanish  moss,  along  the  lagoons  of 
the  South,  with  water  so  truly  realistic  in 
its  effect  that  one  is  tempted  to  dip  one's 
finger  into  it.  She  seldom  exhibits,  but 
various  art  lovers  and  critics  have  been 
attracted  by  her  work. 

The  Manet  impressionism  of  seeing 
things  flat,  as  broad  masses,  has  also 
influenced  our  landscape  art  considerably. 


106       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Henri,  Redfield,  Schofield  have  painted 
landscapes  in  that  fashion. 

To  Manet  and  Monet,  and  above  all  else 
to  Millet,  who  transferred  landscapes  back 
into  the  black,  rough  soil  of  reality,  we  owe 
the  present  frugality  in  the  choice  of  sub- 
jects. The  simplest  rural  scenes,  such  as 
fields  and  meadows,  the  corner  of  a  gar- 
den, a  vista  through  woodland,  old  or- 
chards and  humble  country  homes,  an  old 
fence  or  a  clump  of  trees,  a  lonesome  road, 
or  a  row  of  trees  against  the  luminous  sky, 
etc.,  are  sufficient  to  serve  as  mediums  for 
expressing  the  beauties  of  nature  "  as  seen 
through  an  artist's  temperament." 

The  singular  blending  of  original  ex- 
pression with  a  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious tendency  to  copy  contemporary 
foreign  style  and  methods,  is  still  ram- 
pant, although  the  more  serious  men  are 
succeeding  more  and  more  in  freeing 
themselves  from  such  an  influence.  Land- 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  IO/ 

scape  painting  is  undoubtedly  the  most 
popular  branch  of  our  art,  and  the  one 
most  encouraged  by  the  dealers.  A  for- 
eign artist  is  said  to  have  once  remarked 
at  an  Academy  exhibition :  "  Why,  it 
seems  to  me  that  American  artists  paint 
nothing  but  landscapes."  And  it  really 
impresses  one  so.  Every  exhibit  contains 
landscapes  of  all  styles,  from  Gainsbor- 
oughs  down  to  Cazins,  imitations  or  adap- 
tations. And  any  amount  of  diluted 
Diaz',  Dupres,  Corots,  and  Rousseaus. 
The  canvases  of  R.  C.  Minor,  Julian  Rix, 
and  H.  W.  Ranger  almost  in  every  instance 
bear  reminiscences  of  the  Barbizon  school. 
They  know  every  trick  of  the  trade,  and 
their  work  impresses  one  as  being  de- 
cidedly too  clever.  Ranger's  "  Morning 
at  High  bridge,"  however,  is  a  picture  of 
considerable  solidity  and  breadth.  The 
pictures  of  Appleton  Browne,  simple  bits 
of  nature  in  greenish  gray,  always  remind 


108       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

one  somewhat  of  Corot,  due  to  a  long  ser- 
vitude to  this  poet  of  the  brush. 

We  may  regard  R.  A.  Blakelock 
(1847-  )  as  a  direct  descendant  of  Rous- 
seau. He  had  a  strong  personality,  how- 
ever, and  his  peculiar  canvases,  painted 
with  a  skewer  such  as  the  butchers  use, 
blackened  with  madness  and  illumined 
with  a  weird  tearful  moonlight,  —  insuffi- 
cient as  they  may  be  in  many  respects, 
—  are  at  least  the  original  expression  of  a 
soul 

Besides  these  imitators  there  are  a  num- 
ber of  men  who  excel  only  in  one  phase 
of  nature,  which  never  grows  uninterest- 
ing even  if  reproduced  in  a  hundred  vari- 
ations. In  the  case  of  J.  J.  Enneking,  of 
Boston,  it  is  the  representation  of  autum- 
nal forest  land  behind  which  the  sun  is 
setting  in  a  fierce  glow  of  red  and  orange 
colours ;  with  Bolton  Jones  the  melancholy 
poetry  that  pervades  autumnal  scenery; 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  ICX) 

and  with  J.  F.  Murphy  the  passion  for 
desolate  wind-tossed  plains  shrouded  in 
storm-laden  clouds. 

Water-colour  painting  enjoys  great  pop- 
ularity. Many  of  our  leading  men,  like 
Winslow  Homer,  Shirlaw,  La  Farge,  F.  S. 
Church,  and  the  majority  of  our  landscap- 
ists,  in  particular  A.  Schilling  and  Horatio 
Walker,  are  as  successful  in  aquarelle  as 
in  oil,  but  make  no  specialty  of  it.  The 
large  bulk  of  water-colours,  however,  serve 
strictly  commercial  ends.  The  work  of 
comparatively  few  water-colourists  is  char- 
acterised by  any  individuality  or  strength. 
If  we  mention  the  names  of  S.  P.  R. 
Triscott,  Sears  Gallagher,  and  Ross 
Turner,  all  three  New  England  artists, 
C.  C.  Curran,  Albert  Herter,  A.  E. 
Sterner,  W.  L.  Lathrop,  Clara  McChes- 
ney,  and  Rhoda  Holmes  Nichols,  who 
has  often  proved  herself  a  master  in  this 
medium,  we  have  all  but  exhausted  the 


IIO       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

subject.  There  are  two  men,  however, 
who  have  something  special  to  say.  H. 
B.  Snell  is  our  foremost  water-colourist. 
Thoroughly  original,  pure  and  delicate  in 
tone,  he  makes  us  feel  in  his  pictures 
something  of  the  intensity  with  which  he 
is  himself  impressed  by  nature.  What 
would  an  exhibition  be  without  his  deli- 
cate colour  harmonies  and  subtle  poetical 
fancies  ?  He  once  said  to  me :  "  I  do  not 
quite  understand  your  clamour  for  high 
art ;  I  am  not  in  it."  That  was  very  mod- 
est of  a  man  who  is  decidedly  "  in  it,"  and 
in  this  particular  branch  of  art  almost 
alone  in  it.  If  life  were  not  so  short,  and 
its  interests  so  manifold,  I  could  gaze  for 
hours  at  pictures  like  "  A  Cove,"  a  quiet 
nook  formed  of  stalwart  rocks,  crowned 
with  a  sunlit  plain  cradling  a  sheet  of 
water,  on  which  a  dim  sail  is  drifting,  or 
at  his  "  Moonlight "  (both  exhibited  at  the 
New  York  Water  Colour  Society,  1898),  a 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  Ill 

marvellous  skyscape  over  a  simple  cottage, 
all  bathed  in  a  silvery  fairylike  colour.  C. 
A.  Needham  (1844-  ),  also  active  as  a 
landscape  and  street-scene  painter,  is  an- 
other expert  water-colourist.  A  few  trees 
reflected  in  a  pool  of  water,  a  sloping  hill, 
some  shrubbery,  and  a  sky  faintly  flushed 
with  blue  or  rose,  suffice  him  to  suggest 
both  poetry  and  mystery.  The  chief  char- 
acteristic of  his  style  is  a  love  for  beau- 
tiful colour.  Every  work  of  his  brush 
reveals  an  originality  of  artistic  expression, 
alike  in  composition  and  decorative  effect. 
In  his  smallest  sketches  there  are  always 
noticeable  qualities  of  colour,  and  an  im- 
pression so  true  and  broad  as  to  never  fail 
to  recall  nature.  For  melody  and  grace  of 
conception  and  execution  Needham's  art 
stands  almost  unique.  In  his  most  recent 
work  the  colour  is  almost  too  sombre  and 
the  mystic  quality  still  more  pronounced. 
The  Japanese  influence  can  be  traced 


112       A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

in  the  work  of  Sargent  Kendall,  whose 
sketches  have  all  the  characteristics  of 
Japanese  landscape  art  without  possess- 
ing its  primal  virtue,  the  power  of  sugges- 
tiveness,  and  J.  H.  Twachtman,  whose 
atmospheric  effects  have  a  distinction  of 
tone  and  a  delicacy  of  colour  comparing 
favourably  with  the  exquisite  colouring 
of  Hiroshige.  He  perpetuates  the  spirit, 
the  depths  of  atmosphere,  the  light,  the 
movement,  the  exquisite  feeling  of  pulsat- 
ing nature,  particularly  in  those  moods 
where  sharp  details  are  merged  into  more 
tender  harmonies.  A.  B.  Dow,  who  draws 
American  landscapes  in  the  manner  in 
which  an  artist  of  Old  Japan  might  have 
drawn  them,  will  be  commented  upon  at 
length  in  another  chapter. 

Among  the  artists  who  have  a  special 
fondness  for  line  composition  and  the 
vastness  of  nature  are  Stephen  Parrish, 
L.  Ochtman,  and  C.  A.  Platt  (1861-  ). 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  115 

Stephen  Parrish  excels  in  winter  scenes 
and  the  misty,  dreary,  drowsy  side  of 
nature.  Ochtman,  whom  George  Inness 
admired  and  predicted  a  future  for,  is  an 
artist  of  brilliant  parts,  and  one  who,  al- 
though sometimes  inclined  to  sensation- 
alism, has  undoubtedly  created  some 
splendid  compositions.  My  favourite, 
however,  is  C.  A.  Platt.  His  landscapes 
are  true  observations  of  nature,  with  a 
decided  touch  of  poetic  feeling,  dreamlike 
and  gilded  with  classicism.  These  men 
have  a  certain  preciseness  of  treatment  in 
common,  that  gives  dignity  to  their  spa- 
cious landscapes,  which,  however,  lack 
warmth  of  feeling,  and,  at  times,  look 
rather  empty. 

Among  the  men  whom  it  is  more  or 
less  difficult  to  classify  are  many  who, 
without  attaining  the  highest  rank,  give 
us  much  that  is  pleasing,  much  that  is 
poetic,  and  occasionally  some  examples  of 


Il6       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

the  first  order.  A  man  who  stands  out 
distinctly  is  Morgan  Mcllhenny  (1858-  ). 
We  feel  at  once  here  is  a  man  behind  the 
canvas.  He  is  inspired  by  the  quiet  tones 
of  gray  days  in  fields  and  meadowlands, 
and  understands  how  to  imbue  the  sim- 
plest scenes  with  a  certain  idyllic  feeling. 
He  struggles  very  hard  for  expression,  he 
lacks  freedom  and  strength,  yet  what  a 
delicious  silvery  tone  can  be  found  in 
some  of  his  pictures.  Another  man  of 
merit  was  the  late  Charles  Linford,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, who  took  Diaz  for  his  model 
and  then  went  out-of-doors  and  composed 
his  pictures,  going  from  place  to  place, 
now  setting  his  easel  up  for  a  tree  or  a 
road,  then  for  a  fence,  etc.,  until  the  pic- 
ture was  finished.  His  greens  were  very 
vigorous,  and  his  use  of  bitumen  was 
exceedingly  skilful.  Boston  has  two  land- 
scapists  of  decided  talent:  C.  H.  Wood- 
bury,  fond  of  choosing  his  subjects  from 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  117 

the  rolling  sand-dunes  of  New  England, 
although  he  is  equally  successful  in  other 
subjects,  with  a  preference,  however,  for 
undulating  land ;  and  C.  E.  L.  Greene,  an 
earnest  and  enthusiastic  worker,  by  far  too 
little  known,  whose  pictures  show  a  vigor- 
ous, free  handling,  a  fine  conception  of 
colour,  and  a  delicacy  of  feeling  that  places 
him  among  our  leading  landscape  painters. 
Among  the  landscapists  whom  we  can 
study  at  the  regular  art  exhibitions  are 
Charles  W.  Eaton,  who  always  manages 
to  paint  a  pleasing  picture  and  to  appear 
poetical ;  W.  M.  Chase,  whose  landscapes 
of  the  Shinnecock  hills  sometimes  con- 
tain delightful  passages;  Lungren,  who 
explores  the  sedge  deserts  of  Arizona; 
J.  A.  Prichard,  the  depicter  of  wild-flower 
life,  with  backgrounds  of  trees  that  remind 
one  of  temples  and  sacred  woods;  G.  H. 
Dearth,  favourably  known  for  his  wood- 
scenes  and  sand-dunes  in  bluish  twilight 


Il8       A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

tones,  shimmering  with  the  light  of  the 
afterglow ;  Arthur  Parton,  who  in  former 
years  depicted  some  of  the  sober  effect  of 
our  gray  November  days,  but  who,  lately, 
like  Homer  Lee  and  ^Charles  A.  Need- 
ham,  in  his  more  realistic  moods,  has  been 
searching  for.picturesque  bits  around  New 
York.  His  "  Palisades  in  Winter"  deserve 
special  praise. 

There  are  many  more,  who  devote  their 
lives  with  enthusiasm  to  the  pursuit  of 
landscape  painting,  but  it  would  be  an 
impossible  task  to  mention  all.  Among 
the  younger  men,  however,  there  are  four 
who  seem  to  challenge  attention,  for  the 
fact  that,  although  they  have  not  yet 
developed  a  distinct  style  of  their  own, 
they  seem  to  possess  sufficient  individual- 
ity and  skill  to  accomplish  the  task,  and 
may,  perhaps,  be  destined  to  play  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  future  development  of 
our  landscape  art.  They  are  F.  de  Haven, 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  119 

W.  L.  Lathrop,  F.  Kost,  and  Alexander 
Schilling. 

F.  de  Haven  (1856-  ),  in  his  earlier 
career,  possessed  exquisite  tone  quality, 
lately  he  strives  more  for  colour  and  dra- 
matic intensity.  His  subjects  are  simple 
and  poetical:  the  last  glow  of  the  sun,  a 
windy  day,  a  threatening  sky,  or  struggling 
clouds  throwing  a  stream  of  light  on  the 
plain,  etc.,  furnish  the  principal  themes  of 
his  pictures. 

F.  Kost  (1861-  ),  whose  canvases 
were  formerly  aglow  with  radiant  colours, 
has  sobered  down  to  gray  harmonies,  and 
in  this  process  also  simplified  his  compo- 
sitions. His  latest  pictures  of  Buzzard's 
Bay,  with  seaweed  gatherers  at  work,  large 
canvases,  with  the  immensity  of  the  sea, 
and  the  beach  lying  under  a  gray  sky,  with 
only  a  man  and  a  cart  at  the  water's  edge, 
have  a  strength  and  directness  which 
show  clearly,  that  Kost  is  one  of  the  few 


I2O       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

men  who  endeavour  to  depict  nature  as 
they  see  her  through  their  own  eyes,  fresh 
and  ever  variable. 

Another  master  of  simplicity  is  W.  L. 
Lathrop,  (1859-  ),  the  poet  of  exquisite 
green  and  gray  gradations,  who  only 
needs  a  strip  of  wind-blown  marshes,  a 
solitary  house  on  a  hill,  and  a  row  of 
defoliated  trees  against  the  sky  to  reflect 
a  colour  mood  of  nature.  His  pictures 
lately  show  more  colour  and  a  more 
poetical  choice  of  subjects,  but  he  is  less 
successful  in  these  attempts,  and  will  un- 
doubtedly return  to  simpler  phases  of 
nature. 

Alexander  Schilling  (1859-  ),  though 
originally  an  artist  of  decided  individu- 
ality and  originality  of  conception,  had 
the  misfortune  to  become  too  closely 
connected  with  the  style  of  two  other 
men  he  admired.  Being  a  skilful  etcher, 
circumstances  forced  him  to  devote  four 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  121 

years  of  his  life  to  the  making  of  two 
reproductive  etchings  after  Tryon  and 
Horatio  Walker,  and  ever  since  he  has 
been  unable  to  free  his  art  from  their 
influence.  Notwithstanding  which,  he 
has  something  to  say  —  something  that 
comes  from  the  heart  of  the  man,  —  and 
as  soon  as  he  has  found  his  own  self 
again  he  will  produce  work  of  lasting 
value.  Though  as  a  rule  not  partial  to 
prophecies,  in  this  case  I  venture  one,  be- 
cause I  know  of  no  talent  better  equipped 
or  more  symmetrical  among  the  younger 
landscape  painters  of  America. 

If  these  men  really  aspire  to  the  fore- 
most rank,  the  task  they  have  before  them 
seems  gigantic,  for  they  would  be  obliged 
to  surpass  the  two  greatest  landscape 
painters  America  has  hitherto  produced, 
Homer  Martin  and  Tryon. 

Homer  Martin  (1836-97),  born  at  Al- 
bany, N.  Y.,  was  a  direct  descendant  of 


122       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

the  melancholy  muse  which  urged  Jervis 
McEntee  to  pursue  inaccessible  ideals. 
Like  him,  he  makes  use  of  landscapes  to 
express  his  own  bitterness  and  weariness ; 
he  contemplated  nature  with  a  dreaming 
sadness,  and  created  groves  and  mountain 
recesses  in  which  he  could  hide  his  mel- 
ancholy broodings.  But  he  was  too  gen- 
uine a  poet  of  the  brush  to  remain  solely 
subjective. 

Among  the  monotonous  dunes  of  New- 
port, in  the  solitudes  of  the  Mississippi 
valley,  as  well  as  at  the  foot  of  the  Adiron- 
dack Mountains,  he  tried;  prey  to  a  secret 
but  gnawing  inquietude,  to  grasp  the 
soul  with  which  the  pantheists  endow 
nature.  The  faint  and  fugitive  lights 
which  flit  across  his  canvases  are  the 
image  not  so  much  of  his  own  soul  but 
that  of  humanity.  No  one  ever  reflected 
like  him  with  a  ray  of  struggling  light 
the  solemn  agitation  of  a  human  mind 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  125 

in  quest  of  the  unknown,  aspiring  from 
things  visible  toward  the  infinite. 

Technically  his  work  was  still  more 
uneven  than  Inness',  he  was  entirely  sub- 
ject to  inspirations.  He  seldom  reached 
the  desired  end,  and  many  of  his  can- 
vases were  consequently  failures.  But  in 
pictures  like  the  "  Harp  of  the  Winds,"  the 
"  Sand  Dunes "  at  the  Metropolitan  Mu- 
seum, the  "  Newport  Neck  "  at  the  Lotus 
Club,  New  York,  there  is  absolute  free- 
dom, freshness,  and  originality.  They 
startle  us  by  their  intimacy  with  nature, 
the  strength  and  immensity  which  they 
perfectly  suggest,  and  their  wealth  of 
subdued  colour. 

He  seemed  to  have  less  feeling  for 
form,  but  his  mastery  of  atmosphere 
and  indefinite  distances  and  his  peculiar 
rich  schemes  of  colour  —  which  is  the 
more  astonishing  as  his  eyesight  had 
been  always  very  bad,  in  particular  since 


126       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

1892  —  will  make  his  name  one  to  be 
remembered  for  ever  in  the  world  of 
art,  as  one  of  the  classics  of  American 
landscape  painting. 

The  memorial  exhibition  of  his  work 
at  the  Century  Club  ('97)  was  complete 
enough  to  enforce  that  conclusion.  How 
that  man  has  toiled,  how  faithfully  he  has 
struggled  to  perfect  himself,  and  what 
strides  he  has  actually  made  from  the 
"  Naturanschauung  "  of  the  Hudson  River 
School  and  the  Kensett  style  with  its 
melting  and  subtle  gradation  of  pure 
thin  colour  in  the  early  sixties,  to  the 
lurid  sentimentalism  of  the  early  eighties ; 
and  from  these  the  steady  ascent  to  the 
masterpieces  of  eight  or  ten  years  ago, 
with  their  rich  and  ruddy  colouring, 
their  lineal  and  constructive  beauty,  their 
solid  technical  resources,  their  intimate 
knowledge  of  nature  in  her  calm  and 
dreamy  moods;  and  finally  his  latest 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  127 

work  where  merely  a  road  along  a  hill- 
side and  a  defoliated  tree  or  a  waste  of 
land  with  a  rock  formation  were  necessary 
to  him  to  express  with  profound  sim- 
plicity the  heroic  harmonies  of  nature. 
He  felt  like  his  own  flesh  and  blood 
the  animating  forces  of  the  humid  soil, 
the  spirituality  of  trees,  and  the  revela- 
tions of  light  in  the  ever  changing 
atmosphere.  His  sympathy  with  these 
aspects  of  nature  almost  amounted  to 
idolatry. 

Much  further  landscape  painting  can- 
not go.  It  was,  however,  left  to  Dwight 
W.  Tryon  (1849-  )  to  embellish  it  with 
two  other  qualities,  the  subtleties  of  Jap- 
anese art  and  the  musical  suggestiveness 
which  was  introduced  into  mural  painting 
by  Chavannes. 

Looking  at  a  picture  of  Inness,  we  still 
argue  in  our  mind,  "  He  meant  to  rep- 
resent such  and  such  a  scene  under 


128       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

such  and  such  circumstances;"  before 
a  Homer  Martin,  one  realises  at  once 
its  meaning  and  says  to  oneself,  "  It  rep- 
resents fall  and  the  weird  melancholy 
of  a  human  soul;"  but  before  a  Tryon, 
one  simply  feels  as  if  looking  at  na- 
ture herself.  Its  vague  harmonies  drift 
quickly  and  irresistibly  into  one's  soul. 

Tryon  was  born  at  Hartford,  Conn. 
He  studied  with  Daubigny  and  Har- 
pignies,  and  was  awarded  the  Webb 
Prize  for  his  "First  Leaves,"  at  the  Society 
of  American  Artists  in  1889.  At  first  he 
painted  very  much  like  his  French  mas- 
ters, but  having  the  gift  of  delicate  ob- 
servation and  absolute  surety  of  the  eye, 
he  made  rapid  strides  toward  perfection, 
and  his  style  appeared  already  mature 
when  he  received  the  first  class  medal 
for  his  "  Rising  Moon,"  at  the  Munich  In- 
ternational Exhibition  of  1892.  In  reality 
he  had  arrived  only  at  a  period  of  transi- 


OUR   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS.  1 29 

tion.  His  pictures  still  revealed  a  distinct 
poetic  thought,  not  unlike  Cazin's  earlier 
work,  for  instance,  "La  Village  Morte," 
and  "  A  Cottage  Lost  in  the  Solitudes  of 
Picardy."  Dissatisfied  with  these  early 
triumphs,  he  set  himself  the  task  of 
fathoming  the  psychological  qualities  of 
colour,  the  sentiment  and  poetry  they  are 
capable  of  suggesting,  in  short,  their 
musical  charm.  He  persistently  strove 
for  the  subtlest  nuances  and  most  fugitive 
moments  of  nature.  His  magic  brush 
leads  us  to  silent  meadow-lands  and 
straw-coloured  fields,  where  human  life 
seems  extinct  and  only  long  rows  of  trees 
lift  their  barren  branches  into  dawn;  to 
the  hushed  mystery  of  a  sleeping  pond  or 
a  wandering  river  reflecting  the  eternal 
riddle  of  existence;  to  lonesome,  snow- 
bound marshes,  with  a  few  faint  lights 
shining  through  tree  trunks  and  wind- 
worn  shrubbery;  or  into  classic?  orchards 


130       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

where   apple-trees   in   blossom    seem    to 
drop  "large  and  melodious  thoughts." 

These  simple  subjects  Tryon  moulds 
into  simple  repetitions  of  horizontal  lines, 
embroidered  with  the  fretwork  of  details, 
into  nameless  nuances  of  colours,  fragrant 
in  their  vitality  and  yet  so  fragile  that  the 
ordinary  eye  can  hardly  distinguish  and 
appreciate  them.  He  masters,  like  no 
one  else,  the  uncertain  tonalities  of  dawn 
and  twilight.  With  works  of  art  it  should 
be  very  much  as  with  human  beings,  they 
should  possess  a  soul,  an  individuality,  a 
certain  something  which  can  not  be  mate- 
rially grasped,  but  which  produces  in  the 
sympathetic  spectator  feelings,  similar  to 
those  the  artist  felt  in  his  creative  mo- 
ments. Tryon's  pictures  have  this  to  a 
rare  degree.  They  are  almost,  literally 
speaking,  musical  in  their  effect,  not  un- 
like the  pizzicato  notes  on  the  A  string 
of  a  violin. 


OUR    LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  133 

Tryon's  method  of  work  is  particularly 
interesting.  Seven  months  of  the  year,  at 
least,  he  spends  on  his  farm  at  South 
Dartmouth,  Mass.  During  this  time  he 
never  paints,  he  simply  absorbs  the  beau- 
ties of  New  England  scenery  and  takes 
mental  notes.  Also  during  the  winter 
months,  in  his  New  York  studio,  he  lives 
a  very  retired  life,  caring  for  no  com- 
panionship save  his  painting,  which  oc- 
cupies him  as  long  as  daylight  lingers, 
and  there  and  then  he  tries  to  realise  in 
paint  the  accumulated  mental  jiotes.  At 
the  start  he  is  an  impressionist.  What 
he  considers  a  sketch  many  landscapists 
would  consider  a  finished  picture.  They 
contain  all  the  vitality,  the  robustness, 
bravura  strokes  of  the  first  impression. 
Then  he  begins  to  work,  to  touch  up 
and  break  the  surface,  perfect  the  con- 
struction of  leading  lines,  to  drag  and 
stipple  with  nervous  touches  until  his 


134       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

ideal  is  realised.  And  — what  is  most 
marvellous  —  the  finished  picture  still  pos- 
sesses the  original  strength  of  the  sketch, 
only  muffled,  as  it  were,  by  the  mist  of 
dreams. 

He  composes  his  pictures  as  a  com- 
poser does  his  score.  His  parallelism  of 
horizontal  and  vertical  lines  is  like  mel- 
odic phrasing.  And  it  seems  as  if  his 
objects  were  shaped  and  massed  to  com- 
plete each  other,  to  harmonise  like  accords. 
He  has  done  for  landscape  painting  the 
same  thing  which  Chavannes  did  for  mural 
painting.  His  contribution  to  the  use  of 
parallelism  in  pictorial  art  is  enormous. 
Here  the  Japanese  might  pause  and  learn 
new  lessons.  He  is,  however,  less  a  com- 
poser of  space  than  Chavannes;  he  pre- 
fers the  rhythms  of  sharp  curves  and 
broken  undulations.  Chavannes  com- 
poses at  largo ;  Tryon  restricts  himself  to 
andantes  and  adagios. 


OUR   LANDSCAPE    PAINTERS.  135 

Tryon  has  often  been  criticised  for  his 
limited  range  of  subjects.  "  They  are  like 
song  composers  "  (referring  to  Dewing  and 
Tryon)  "  who  excel  in  a  simple  little  mel- 
ody and  never  tire  of  repeating  it,"  a 
painter  once  remarked  to  me.  This  is 
hardly  just;  few  seem  to  realise  how 
much  strength  is  really  necessary  for  such 
moderation.  Tryon  attempts  only  what 
he  can  master. 

To  appreciate  fully  how  perfect  Tryon's 
art  really  is,  one  has  to  visit  the  House  of 
Freer,  Detroit,  where  his  pictures  are 
shown  to  the  best  advantage.  The  whole 
interior  decoration  is  in  harmony  with  the 
Tryons,  Dewings,  Abbott  Thayers,  Whis- 
tlers, F.  S.  Church's,  and  numerous  Japan- 
ese kakemonos  of  which  the  collection  ex- 
clusively consists.  Tryon  has  reached 
the  calm  perfection  of  Japanese  art.  The 
great  power  of  the  artist,  who  stands  alone 
among  his  brother  painters  for  delicacy  of 


136       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

work  and  a  singular  superiority  of  educa- 
tion, lies  in  the  very  moderation  which 
guides  all  his  efforts,  and  which  has  al- 
ways been  one  of  the  leading  characteris- 
tics of  art,  when  it  approached  perfection. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   OLD   SCHOOL. 

[N  the  year  1828  the  National 
Academy  of  Design  held  its  first 
exhibition.  In  the  same  year 
Gilbert  Stuart  died.  These  two  events, 
occurring  at  the  same  time,  mark  the 
close  of  one  period  and  the  beginning  of 
another. 

The  new  institution  tried  to  furnish 
thorough  opportunities  for  art  instruction, 
to  give  annual  exhibitions,  and  to  estab- 
lish a  permanent  art  gallery;  the  latter 
project  was  soon  abandoned,  the  other 
two  were  strictly  carried  out.  Samuel 
F.  B.  Morse,  an  artist  of  ability,  but  better 
137 


138       A    HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

known  as  the  inventor  of  the  electric 
telegraph,  was  its  first  president. 

Besides  the  three  landscape  painters, 
Cole,  Doughty,  and  Durand,  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  three  other 
artists  were  particularly  active  in  the 
development  of  our  native  art,  namely, 
Henry  Inman,  Chester  Harding,  and 
Robert  W.  Weir. 

It  was  a  fair  beginning,  despite  the  mea- 
greness  of  the  artistic  life  of  that  time, 
an  idea  of  which  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  there  was  only  one  dealer 
in  New  York  City  who  supplied  materials 
to  the  few  studios  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Greenwich  Street  and  lower  Broadway. 
This  individual  seems  to  have  been  some- 
what of  an  autocrat,  and  reports  relate 
that  it  was  not  uncommon  for  him  to 
dictate  to  the  artists  who  had  to  patronise 
him  the  colours  he  would  permit  them  to 
use,  refusing  to  sell  certain  materials  if 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  139 

he  considered  them  inappropriate.  The 
neighbourhood  of  his  shop  was  a  sort  of 
rendezvous,  just  as  his  little  parlour  in 
the  rear  was  a  gathering-place  for  a  few 
choice  spirits  among  the  still  small  band 
of  workers. 

Notable  among  them  was  Henry  In- 
man  (1801-46),  a  well-trained  painter, 
equally  successful  in  portraits,  miniatures, 
landscapes,  and  genre  subjects.  His 
"Mumbling  the  Peg"  (at  the  Philadel- 
phia Academy),  two  boys  sitting  in  a 
meadow,  playing  jack-knife,  is  a  picture 
of  decided  merit.  Expressed  with  frank- 
ness and  sincerity  by  a  man  of  thought 
and  poetic  feeling,  the  little  oval-shaped 
picture  deserves  to  be  considered  the  first 
picture  of  note  of  the  American  school 
of  genre  painting.  Success  crowned  his 
short  career  to  a  large  degree,  most  nota- 
bly in  portraiture.  During  a  visit  to 
England,  in  1844,  he  painted  the  portraits 


I4O       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

of  Wordsworth,  Dr.  John  Chalmers,  Lord 
Chancellor  Cottenham,  Macaulay,  and 
other  noted  men.  He  was  very  popular 
among  the  profession,  and  with  each 
returning  summer  a  band  of  artists,  in- 
cluding Kensett,  F.  E.  Church,  Mount, 
and  McConkey,  all  men  representative 
of  this  period,  gathered  in  the  Catskills  to 
answer  to  his  and  Cole's  summons,  and 
explored  the  country  in  expeditions  on 
foot,  in  buckboards,  or  other  mountain 
conveyances,  so  that  scarcely  a  nook  in 
gorge  or  valley  remained  unvisited.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  Inman  was  engaged 
in  a  series  of  historical  pictures  for  the 
Capitol  at  Washington. 

Chester  Harding  (1792-1866),  who  had 
been  farmer,  chair-maker,  peddler,  and 
tavern-keeper  before  he  took  up  portrait- 
ure as  a  profession  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
eight,  occupied  in  Boston  about  the  same 
position  as  Inman  in  New  York.  He 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  14! 

was  a  conscientious  workman,  like  most 
of  the  portrait  painters  of  this  period. 

The  lesson  which  Copley  and  Stuart 
had  taught  with  their  portraits  and  the 
picturesque  dresses  of  their  time,  record- 
ing on  canvas  what  suggests  the  cus- 
toms as  well  as  the  people  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary period,  was  not  as  yet  forgotten. 
Sully  was  still  painting,  and  a  shining 
example  to  all,  and  their  efforts  were  ap- 
preciated in  England  as  much  as  at 
home.  Harding  was  a  man  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability,  and  he  was  patronised  by 
the  oldest  and  most  aristocratic  families 
here  as  well  as  abroad.  Contemporaries 
report  that  there  was  something  magnetic 
and  grand  in  his  character,  frank  and 
good-natured  in  his  daily  life,  and  earnest 
and  indomitable  in  all  matters  relating  to 
his  art. 

Robert  W.  Weir  (1803-89),  of  Hugue- 
not descent,  was  the  leading  representa- 


142        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

tive  of  our  "historical  painters,  who 
acquired  their  training  in  Italy,  and 
attempted  to  paint  classical  pictures  of 
heroic  sizes  like  Carlo  Brumidi,  whose 
then  much-admired  compositions  are  now 
entirely  forgotten. 

Weir's  "  Sailing  of  the  Pilgrims  "  (well 
known  by  numerous  productions)  and 
"Taking  the  Veil"  cause  us  to  wonder 
that  Americans  could  have  so  early  pro- 
duced works  of  art  as  clever  and  con- 
scientious as  his.  They  show  dignity 
and  scrupulous  care,  but  are,  on  the 
whole,  more  pleasing  than  vigorous  and 
original. 

The  most  prominent  effort  in  historical 
painting,  however,  we  owe  to  an  artist  of 
German  extraction:  Emmanuel  Leutze 
(1816-68),  whose  "Washington  at  Prince- 
ton," "  Emigration  to  the  West "  (one  of 
the  panels  of  the  staircase  at  the  Capitol), 
and  "Washington  Crossing  the  Dela- 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  145 

ware  "  (at  the  Metropolitan  Museum)  are 
still  known  to  everybody.  He  came 
early  to  America,  but  always  remained 
in  touch  with  his  native  country,  and 
painted  many  of  the  American  subjects, 
among  them  the  "  Washington  Crossing 
the  Delaware,"  at  Diisseldorf.  The  ice 
was  painted  from  a  mass  of  broken  ice 
floating  down  the  Rhine.  He  was  very 
prolific,  a  man  capable  of  enthusiasm,  and 
aspiring  to  high  ideals,  but  his  art  bore 
the  unmistakable  stamp  of  his  teachers, 
Lessing  and  Shadow,  and  any  connois- 
seur knows  what  that  means,  in  particular 
when  applied  to  figures  over  life-size.  His 
colour  was  always  crude  and  hard,  and 
his  drawing  academical.  His  "  Godiva," 
"  Iconoclast,"  "Landing  of  the  Norsemen," 
and  similar  compositions,  in  which  he 
could  display  his  knowledge  of  costume, 
are  even  less  artistic  than  his  more  realis- 
tic Washington  pictures.  He  had  vast 


146       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

intellectual  resources,  but  was  in  no 
sense  a  painter. 

New  York  had  gradually  become  the 
centre  of  a  number  of  excellent  portrait 
painters,  such  as  Elliott,  Page,  Baker, 
Hicks,  one  of  the  first  Couture  pupils, 
Le  Clear,  Huntington,  Naegle,  and  Gray, 
—  the  contemporaries  of  Staigg,  Healy, 
and  Ames  in  Boston,  —  an  astonishingly 
large  jiumber,  considering  how  few  good 
portraitists  we  possess  nowadays;  but 
photography  at  that  time  was  still  in 
its  infancy  and  portraits  in  demand, 
even  by  the  less  wealthy  class.  And  the 
men  were  grown  to  the  task,  their  brush- 
work  was  not  as  clever  as  that  in  vogue 
to-day,  but  they  all  had  the  gift  of  catch- 
ing a  likeness,  which  is,  after  all,  the  most 
important  thing  in  portraiture. 

At  a  time  when  appreciation  of  purely 
technical  qualities  was  still  very  scarce, 
Charles  Loring  Elliott  (1812-68)  achieved 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  147 

an  extraordinary  degree  of  excellence. 
His  wondrous  faculty  of  grasping  char- 
acter, and  his  brush  work,  which  looked 
vigorous  in  comparison  with  the  minute, 
painstaking  style  of  his  brother  artists, 
make  him  incontestably  the  leading  repre- 
sentative of  the  old  portrait  school  of 
1840.  His  pictures  are  full  of  fine  col- 
our and  unity  of  effect,  his  style  is  direct, 
sincere,  and  strong,  and  one  is  amply 
compensated  for  the  slight  faultiness  of 
drawing,  the  result  of  insufficient  aca- 
demic training,  by  the  comprehensive 
grasp  of  his  subject. 

As  a  forerunner  of  George  Fuller  one 
may  regard  William  Page  (1811-85).  He 
produced  quaint  types  of  American  femi- 
nine beauty,  and,  as  far  as  characterisa- 
tion is  concerned,  revealed  rare  delicacy 
and  a  deep  insight  into  human  nature. 
His  success  with  colour,  though  often 
very  marked  and  satisfactory,  suffered 


148       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

sometimes,  I  suppose,  by  reason  of  the 
very  multiplicity  of  his  experiments.  At 
all  events,  there  are  pictures  from  his 
brush  in  which,  in  the  common  studio 
phrase  of  our  period,  the  colour  does  not 
"  ring  true."  Also  Hicks,  of  Boston,  was 
notable  for  his  colour.  A  still  more  pro- 
nounced sense  for  colour  than  either  Page 
or  Hicks  was  possessed  by  one  of  their 
contemporaries,  a  queer  sort  of  genius, 
who  died  about  1870  in  abject  poverty, 
at  the  age  of  sixty.  His  name  was  John 
Quidor.  Four[of  his  paintings,  illustrating 
Washington  Irving's  "Legend  of  Sleepy 
Hollow "  and  his  "  Knickerbocker's  His- 
tory of  New  York,"  can  be  seen  at  the 
Brooklyn  Institute.  In  the  catalogue 
he  is  mentioned  as  a  master  of  "low 
tone,"  but  in  my  opinion  that  is  merely 
a  matter  of  varnish  and  time.  His  pic- 
tures were  painted  very  thinly  and  with 
pure  colours,  and  their  charm  and  merit, 


THE    OLD    SCHOOL.  149 

at  the  time  they  were  painted,  lay  un- 
doubtedly in  the  subtle  skill,  with  which 
the  colours  were  blended  into  a  harmoni- 
ous whole.  He  has  a  dainty  touch  and 
a  nai've  humour  that  are  delicious,  and  his 
fine  mellow  colour  will  save  him  from 
oblivion,  despite  the  varnish  that  has 
been  put  on  more  recently. 

G.  Baker  was  the  sentimental  depicter 
of  ideal  heads  and  children,  and  H.  P. 
Gray  exerted  himself  in  figure  composi- 
tions of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  Good 
miniatures,  by  far  better  than  the  majority 
produced  to-day,  were  painted  by  Staigg 
and  Miss  Goodrich. 

The  most  successful  artist  of  this  pe- 
riod was  Daniel  Huntington  (1816-  ), 
the  third  president  of  the  National  Acad- 
emy. He  was  very  popular,  and  dis- 
pensed with  a  lavish  hand  that  which 
he  earned  to  those  in  need  and  distress. 
He  is  still  painting  to-day,  but  being  a 


150       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

pupil  of  Morse  and  Inman,  he  needs 
must  be  associated  with  the  men  of  that 
period  as  a  pleasing  portrait  painter,  who 
knows  best  himself  that  he  was  no  genius 
like  Elliott,  but  who  did  as  much  as 
anybody  to  advance  art  at  that  early 
stage.  In  his  youth  he  devoted  himself 
to  historical,  allegorical,  and  religious 
paintings,  and  his  "  Mercy's  Dream  "  and 
"The  Sybil"  created  almost  as  much 
sensation  as  Cole's  "  The  Voyage  of 
Life."  His  portrait  of  Bryant,  at  the 
Brooklyn  Institute,  is  a  remarkable  de- 
lineation of  character,  despite  the  other- 
wise conventional  treatment. 

The  first  American  who  made  a  spe- 
cialty of  genre  was  William  Sidney  Mount 
(1807-68),  the  son  of  a  farmer  of  Long 
Island.  He  exhibited  his  first  picture  in 
1828.  Mount  had  a  keen  eye  for  the 
humourous  traits  of  our  rustic  life,  and 
although  he  was  very  deficient  in  tech- 


THE   OLD    SCHOOL.  151 

nique,  he  always  succeeded  in  portraying 
some  of  his  shrewd  observations  of  hu- 
man nature  on  his  canvases.  "  The  Long 
Story  "  and  "  Bargaining  for  a  Horse  "  are 
two  of  his  best  pictures.  A  long  cher- 
ished wish  to  work  out-of-doors,  and  to 
make  his  studies  in  the  Long  Island 
villages  at  leisure,  suggested  the  build- 
ing of  a  wheeled  studio  with  a  glass  front, 
drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses,  which  enabled 
him  to  move  from  place  to  place  and 
select  any  point  of  view  he  wished.  F. 
W.  Edmonds,  a  friend  of  Mount's  and  a 
bank~cashier  by  profession,  found  time  to 
produce  many  clever  "story-telling"  pic- 
tures, showing  a  keener  eye  for  colour,  but 
less  skill  in  the  drawing  and  composition. 

Richard  Carton  Woodville,  a  "  Diissel- 
dorf  man,"  promised  very  much,  but 
unhappily  died  very  young. 

J.  B.  Irving  executed  some  clever  inte- 
riors, with  figures  in  old-time  costume 


152       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

delicately  drawn  and  painted,  reminding 
one  of  Toulmouche.  At  this  time  also 
our  frontier  life  was  coming  more  prom- 
inently into  notice,  becoming  a  subject 
for  the  pen  of  our  leading  writers.  Irv- 
ing, Cooper,  Whittier,  Kennedy,  Street, 
and  Longfellow  celebrated  Indian  life 
and  border  warfare  in  prose  and  verse, 
while  the  majestic  lines  of  Bryant's 
"Prairies"  seemed  a  prophetic  prelude 
to  the  march  of  mankind  toward  the 
West.  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that 
the  work  of  these  courageous,  enterpris- 
ing pioneers  of  Western  genre :  G.  Catlin, 
C.  F.  Wiman,  Deas,  and  W.  H.  Ranney, 
was  of  so  little  artistic  value,  and  that 
Victor  Nehlig,  a  Frenchman  who  also 
devoted  himself  to  these  subjects  some 
ten  years  later,  and  whose  brush  had  a 
very  sympathetic  touch,  was  less  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  actualities  of 
Indian  warfare  and  border  lite. 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  153 

Mount  was  destined  to  become  the 
precursor  of  a  whole  school  of  genre  art- 
ists, and  portraiture  was  gradually  replaced 
in  public  favour  by  the  painted  anecdote. 
While  shiploads  of  the  academic  artificial 
productions  of  the  Dusseldorf  school  were 
imported,  they  depicted  domestic  scenes 
and  homely  episodes  of  every-day  life,  like 
children  playing  with  a  cat,  the  bride  be- 
fore the  mirror,  boys  attempting  their 
first  smoke,  etc.  Meyer  von  Bremen, 
like  Chartran  to-day,  by  far  more  popular 
in  America  than  at  home,  was  considered 
the  typical  representative  of  German  art, 
and  although  more  serious  artists  had 
nicknamed  his  little  cabinet  pieces,  whose 
exquisite  finish  was  their  sole  merit, 
"German  chocolate  boxes,"  they  were 
the  favourites  of  the  picture-buying 
public.  And  for  the  next  twenty  years 
the  popularity  of  "  story-telling  "  in  paint, 
and  with  it  the  attention  bestowed  on  the 


154       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

human  figures,  steadily  increased,  and 
reached  its  height  in  the  sixties,  when 
the  immigration  of  the  peasantry  of 
Europe  set  in,  affording  new  opportun- 
ities in  types  and  costumes,  and  when 
the  Secession  war,  with  its  many  sad  and 
comic  situations,  gave  to  this  branch  of 
art  a  new  impetus. 

Among  American  genre  pictures  which 
attracted  special  attention  and  which  be- 
came popular  by  reproduction  in  steel  en- 
graving, "  Forging  the  Shaft,"  by  John  F. 
Weir  of  New  Haven,  "  Yankee  Doodle," 
and  "  Jim  Bludsoe,"  by  A.  W.  Willard  of 
Cincinnati,  "  Arguing  the  Question,"  by 
T.  W.  Wood,  and  the  "  End  of  the  Game," 
by  F.  B.  Meyer,  should^  be  particularly 
mentioned. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  several  of  the 
leading  representatives  of  the  school 
reaped  an  unexpected  golden  harvest. 
For  the  first  time  in  its  history  there 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  155 

was  money  in  the  country,  and  well-to-do 
people  were  willing  to  part  with  thou- 
sands of  dollars  for  luxuries,  for  which 
they  would  not  formerly  have  spent  a 
hundred.  The  walls  of  the  old  Studio 
Building,  in  Tenth  Street,  New  York, 
could  tell  many  a  story  of  financial 
success  and  ensuing  prosperity.  There 
were  a  dozen  men  who  had  an  order  for 
every  picture  that  left  their  easel.  One 
of  them  was  J.  G.  Brown,  the  "  shoeblack 
Raphael,"  as  he  has  been  termed.  We 
all  know  his  work.  An  academy  exhibi- 
tion seems  to  be  impossible  without  him. 
His  pictures  are  surely  not  in  harmony 
with  modern  ideas  of  art,  but  we  should 
recognise  the  fact  that,  however  tiresome 
and  crude  we  may  find  them,  he  had  a 
knowledge  superior  to  that  of  most  of  his 
contemporaries,  that  he  knew  something 
of  physiognomy,  of  which  most  modern 
painters  are  absolutely  ignorant,  and  that 


156       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

he  was  one  of  the  first  who  sketched  out- 
of-doors  and  painted  his  pictures  entirely 
from  the  costumed  model.  That  he  dis- 
regarded Ruskin's  dictum  in  regard  to 
the  artistic  value  of  dirt,  is  largely  due 
to  his  training  and  the  taste  of  his  time. 
The  masquerading  automatons  of  the 
peasant-painter  Robert  had  not  yet  been 
replaced  by  the  realistic  figures  of  Bastien 
Lepage. 

Another  successful  painter  of  this 
period  was  E.  L.  Henry,  whose  works 
will  outlive  many  of  greater  merits, 
not  because  of  any  artistic  merits  they 
possess,  —  they  have  none,  —  but  because 
of  their  interest  to  future  generations  as 
replica  of  the  customs  and  costumes  of 
our  ante-railroad  times. 

Men  like  Brown  and  Henry  in  a  way 
represent  American  art  better  than  any 
one  else ;  not  its  aspirations,  but  its  stern 
cruel  facts,  those  the  large  multitude  can 


THE   OLD    SCHOOL.  157 

appreciate  and  understand.  Even  the 
best  of  the  picture-loving  public  still 
prefer  story-telling  to  any  other  style  in 
painting.  A  picture  of  Eastman  John- 
son speaks  to  them.  They  can  under- 
stand it.  The  profession,  on  the  other 
hand,  excepting  those  who  practise  it, 
make  this  branch  of  art  a  subject  of 
much  adverse  criticism  and  argument. 
As  long  as  the  public  wants  such  pic- 
tures and  the  artists  paint  for  the  public 
(which  they  invariably  do,  expecting 
money  in  exchange  for  their  work),  they 
have  their  place,  particularly  if  executed 
with  the  ease  and  elegance  of  an  East- 
man Johnson.  He  is  the  one  great  artist 
this  school  produced,  our  typical  story- 
teller. Each  one  of  his  earlier  pictures 
is  like  a  page  from  a  popular  novel. 

Eastman  Johnson  (1824-  ),  like  most 
of  his  contemporaries,  only  enjoyed  the  pe- 
dantic training  of  the  Dusseldorf  school, 


158       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

where  he  studied  from  1848-51.  Yet 
what  a  mind  of  large  reserve  power  greets 
us  at  the  outset  of  his  career.  What 
strong  and  earnest  convictions,  express- 
ing his  thoughts  in  methods  entirely 
individual,  can  be  traced  in  all  his  works. 
In  his  earlier  career  he  painted  genre 
subjects,  like  his  "  Old  Kentucky  Home  " 
(1867),  at  the  Lennox  Library,  and  his 
"Old  Stage  Coach"  (1871),  with  delicious 
frankness ;  later  on  he  devoted  himself  to 
semi-literary  subjects,  like  "  Milton  Dictat- 
ing to  His  Daughter"  (1875),  and  to  com- 
positions in  which  he  subordinated  the 
subject  to  execution,  and  in  the  last 
twenty  years  almost  entirely  to  portrai- 
ture. 

He  was  progressive,  and  entered  into 
the  heart  of  his  time.  By  the  force  of 
his  imagination  and  antiquarian  knowl- 
edge he  conjures  up  before  us  the  very 
spirit  of  the  Cromwellian  age.  But  the 


THE    OLD   SCHOOL.  l6l 

subject  which  suited  him  best  he  found  in 
contemporary  life.  His  "  Husking  Corn  " 
(1876)  is  a  masterpiece.  He  did  not  find 
it  necessary  to  idealise  nature,  —  mud  or 
magnificence,  it  was  airthe  same  to  him. 
The  only  embellishment  he  furnished  he 
gave  unconsciously,  his  energetic  individ- 
uality. Eastman  Johnson  was  in  the 
very  vanguard  of  those  painters  who 
fought  for  realism  in  modern  art,  and 
there  are  few  who  have  succeeded  as  well 
as  he,  in  rendering  our  American  life 
more  picturesque. 

We  feel  before  his  works,  through  all 
the  imperfections  of  his  art,  through  all 
the  faltering  methods  with  which  his 
genius  sought  to  express  itself,  that  a  vast 
mind  here  sought  feebly  to  utter  great 
thoughts.  We  see  that  unmistakable 
sign  of  all  minds  of  a  high  order,  that  the 
man  was  greater  than  his  works.  It  is 
not  dexterity,  technique,  knowledge,  that 


1 62       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

impresses  us  in  studying  the  work  of 
Eastman  Johnson,  so  much  as  character, 
and  this  quality,  if  no  other  one,  ensures 
him  the  position  of^  one  of  our  most  dis- 
tinguished painters. 

Other  men  of  talent  of  this^period  were 
Ward,  Magrath,  Wordsworth  Thompson, 
and  White.  E.  M.  Ward  has  shown,  in 
his  interiors  of  workshops  and  old-fash- 
ioned houses,  a  more  poetic  feeling,  more 
careful  chiaroscuro,  and  more  correct  and 
forcible  drawing  than  most  of  his  col- 
leagues, but  he  did  not  participate  in  the 
reign  of  prosperity  of  1866-70.  William 
Magrath  (1835-  )  excelled  in  single  fig- 
ures associated  with  rural  life,  generally 
a  milkmaid  or  farmer,  which  were  actual 
distinct  character  types.  "On  the  Old 
Sod,"  at  the  Philadelphia  Academy,  is 
one  of  his  best  pictures.  Wordsworth 
Thompson,  after  devoting  himself  to  coast 
scenes,  for  which  he  made  studies  during 


THE    OLD    SCHOOL.  163 

a  stay  at  the  Mediterranean,  became  a 
depicter  of  the  Revolutionary  times  and 
the  Secession  war.  He  was  a  skilful 
draughtsman,  in  particular  of  horses,  and 
his  highly  finished  pictures  had  some- 
thing [cool  and  crisp  about  them.  He 
painted  gay  cavalcades,  travellers  on 
horseback,  and  camping  scenes,  but  his 
favourite  subject  was  the  figure  of  a 
horseman,  —  a  scout  or  huntsman  halting 
before  a  wayside  inn.  Among  his  more 
elaborate  compositions  is  one  represent- 
ing the  Continental  Army  defiling  before 
General  Washington  and  his  staff  at 
Philadelphia. 

Prominent  on  the  Academy  walls  were 
also  the  pictures  of  S.  J.  Guy,  who  made 
many  friends  by  the  simple  pathos  and 
humour  with  which  he  treated  child  life, 
of  Fred  Johnson,  and  Oliver  J.  Lay,  who 
has  executed  some  thoughtful  and  refined 
indoor  scenes. 


164       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

J.  C.  Thorn  was  an  erratic  sort  of  char- 
acter, shunned  by  the  profession  all  his 
life,  but  who  painted  delicious  bits  of  out- 
of-door  figure  pieces. 

The  emancipation  of  the  slaves  disclosed 
to  the  profession  of  what  importance  our 
coloured  citizens  might  prove  in  art, — 
their  squalor,  picturesqueness,  broad  and 
kindly  humour,  and  the  pathos  which  has 
invested  their  life  with  unusual  interest. 
T.  W.  Wood  absolutely  failed  therein. 
Edwin  White  (1817-77)  used  them  for 
his  simple  studies  from  nature.  His  old 
negro  dreaming  of  liberty  before  a  fire- 
place (at  the  Lenox  Library)  reveals  fine 
perception  and  a  certain  charm  of  execu- 
tion. It  was  left  to  Winslow  Homer, 
however,  to  represent  the  negro,  with  a 
simple  broad  execution,  as  he  really  is. 
Alfred  Kappes,  who  died  in  1894,  the 
last,  most  modern  exponent  of  the  old 
genre  school,  made  a  specialty  of  negro 


THE   OLD    SCHOOL.  165 

life,  and  combined  cleverness  of  handling 
with  genial  humour,  and  the  popular 
quality  of  telling  a  story  effectively. 

Most  of  these  artists  mentioned,  if  they 
had  any  training  at  all,  were  Dusseldorf 
men ;  they  were  people's  painters,  trying 
to  paint  pleasing  pictures,  and  with  few 
exceptions  had  but  little  skill  in  handling 
the  brush.  The  men  who  studied  in 
Paris  fared  much  better.  There  Couture 
had  founded  a  new  school.  His  "  Romans 
of  the  Decadence"  had  taken  the  world 
by  storm,  and  his  bold  and  personal  style, 
a  perpetual  challenge  and  defiance  to 
the  classic  school,  was  the  magnet  which 
attracted  all  young  art  students  to  his 
studio.  Among  his  American  pupils, 
Edward  Harrison  May  (1824-87)  scored 
great  triumphs  with  his  "  King  Lear  and 
Cordelia"  and  "Franklin  Playing  Chess 
with  Lady  Howe."  Here  was  colour,  light 
and  a  vigorous  grasp  of  form,  which  had 


1 66       A    HISTORY    OF    AMERICAN    ART. 

the  certainty  of  a  well-schooled  hand. 
But  the  most  talented  American  artist 
was  W.  M.  Hunt  (1824-79),  born  at  Brat- 
tleboro,  Vt.  The  son  of  a  well-to-do  law- 
yer, he  enjoyed  greater  advantages  of 
training  than  most  painters  of  the  early 
time.  He  began  his  studies  at  the  Royal 
Academy,  London,  and  later  on  went  to 
Dusseldorf.  With  the  same  earnest  idea 
to  further  his  technique,  still  entertaining 
the  idea  of  becoming  a  sculptor,  he  first 
entered  Pradier's  studio,  but  finally  aban- 
doning the  idea,  he  joined  the  Couture 
class.  A  few  years  later  we  find  him  in 
Barbizon  studying  with  Millet.  In  1855 
he  returned  to  America  and  established 
himself  in  Boston. 

Although  a  man  of  imagination  and 
lofty  ideal  he  was  first  of  all  a  painter, 
the  first  great  technician  we  had,  and  his 
Influence  was  far  felt.  He  had  a  large 
number  of  lady  pupils,  of  whom  several, 


THE   OLD    SCHOOL.  169 

notably  Elizabeth  H.  Bartol  and  Mrs.  S. 
W.  Whitman,  gained  some  distinction. 
He  used  to  take  great  interest  in  their 
progress,  and  to  them  were  directed  the 
"  Talks,"  which  were  so  successfully  jotted 
down  by  Helen  M.  Knowlton  that  Hunt 
had  them  copyrighted,  and  which  give  a 
fair  idea  of  his  method  of  teaching  and 
criticism.  The  constant  progress  of  his 
pictures,  the  elaborate  study  he  bestowed 
upon  them,  and  their  simple,  broad  execu- 
tion were,  after  all,  the  best  demonstration 
of  the  art  of  painting  he  could  give. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  summarise  his 
characteristics  as  a  painter.  The  Hunt 
Memorial  Exhibition  of  1879  showed  an 
astonishing  diversity  of  technique,- — the 
more  so  if  one  considers  that  many  of  his 
best  pictures  and  sketches  were  lost  in 
the  fire  of  1872,  —  covering  the  wide  range 
from  Couture 's  direct  surface  methods  to 
Millet's  soulful  and  mystic  touch.  Yet 


I7O       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

in  all  his  pictures  the  artist's  wonderful 
power  of  concentration  and  vitality  in 
recording  impressions  are  markedly  evi- 
dent. His  pictures  are  entirely  free  from 
the  trivial  and  useless,  showing  no  un- 
certainties, and  lacking  nothing  of  that 
spontaneity  which  is  the  great  charm  of 
masterpieces.  He  was  always  painting  to 
satisfy  himself,  not  to  gain  position,  or  the 
applause  of  critics  and  society,  but  to  be 
true  to  the  highest  and  best  aspirations, 
regardless  of  praise  and  comment. 

Among  the  pictures  that  I  have  seen, 
and  which  impressed  me  most  favourably, 
I  may  mention  his  "  Charles  River  with 
Bathers;"  "  Horses  and  Cart  on  a  Beach;" 
the  "  Hurdy-gurdy  Boy,"  the  bright  laugh- 
ing face  of  a  Savoyard  looking  up  to  an 
imaginary  window ;  "  The  Prodigal  Son," 
who,  returning  in  a  state  of  semi-nudity, 
throws  himself  into  his  father's  arms, 
while  his  jealous  brother  turns  away ;  the 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  173 

portrait  of  Allan  Wardner  (owned  by 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Evarts,  New  York),  and  his 
"  Gloucester  Harbour,"  very  rich  in  col- 
our and  light,  an  old  pier  and  an  expanse 
of  water  in  the  foreground,  and  a  sky  full 
of  sun  and  air  over  the  distant  town  with 
its  shipping.  There  is  indeed  much  to 
appreciate  in  the  poetical  conception  of 
these  pictures,  the  charm  and  originality 
of  their  composition,  and  the  firm  grasp 
of  form  and  character  they  convey;  but 
it  is,  after  all,  his  spirited  technique  which 
fascinates  most.  It  was  Hunt  who  first 
shook  off  the  trammels  of  the  early  time 
and  ushered  in  the  progressive  element  of 
modern  art. 

Among  the  artists  of  Boston  belonging 
to  the  set  who  often  met  Hunt  at  Mar- 
Have's  French  restaurant  were  Robinson, 
Waterman,  and  Harvey  Young. 

Marcus  Waterman,  one  of  the  veteran 
artists  of  Boston,  is  to  be  ranked  among 


174       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

the  Orientalists.  Although  he  has  not 
gained  such  a  wide  reputation  as  Weeks 
and  Bridgman,  yet  he  holds  his  own,  and 
as  a  painter  of  sunlight  he  has  few  equals. 
The  courts  of  the  Alhambra,  for  in- 
stance,—  a  stunning  scheme  of  peacocks 
against  bluish  green  tiles,  —  and  scenes 
from  the  "  Arabian  Nights  "  are  his  famil- 
iar subjects.  His  drawing  of  elephants  and 
wild  animals  is  very  spirited ;  the  colossal 
grayish  white  figure  of  the  genius  (in 
the  "  Merchant  and  the  Genius "),  loom- 
ing up  erect  in  the  desert  against  the 
dark  blue  sky,  shading  his  face  with  one 
hand,  shows  what  he  can  do  in  imagina- 
tive figure  drawing.  Waterman's  "  Roc's 
Egg"  has  been  considered  by  many  a 
superior  production  to  Vedder's  interpre- 
tation of  the  same  subject. 

At  this  occasion  the  names  also  of 
William  Sartain  and  Prosper  L.  Senat, 
two  other  artists  who  devote  themselves 


THE   OLD    SCHOOL.  177 

principally  to  the  depiction  of  Oriental 
scenery  and  life,  may  be  mentioned. 

Harvey  A.  Young,  a  representative  of 
our  later  portraiture,  has  a  good  eye  for 
colour,  and  seizes  a  likeness  in  a  manner 
that  is  artistically  satisfactory,  while  he 
does  not  so  often  grasp  the  character  of 
the  sitter  as  his  external  traits. 

Two  other  portraitists  of  this  period 
were  George  A.  Story,  characterised  by 
vigour  of  style  and  pleasing  colour,  and 
Henry  Furness,  of  Philadelphia,  who  died 
in  1867,  just  as  he  reached  his  prime. 
His  first  efforts  showed  but  little  talent, 
but  he  had  the  quality  of  growth,  and 
his  latest  works  were  remarkable  for  the 
rendering  of  character.  When  he  had 
a  sitter  he  would  give  days  to  a  prelimi- 
nary and  exhaustive  study  of  the  mental 
and  moral  traits  of  the  individual. 

Shortly  after  Hunt  returned  to  Amer- 
ica, and  instilled  life  and  energy  into 


178       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Boston  art  circles,  another  genius,  John 
La  Farge  (1835-  ),  came  to  the  front. 
He  was  a  self-taught  man,  and  had  no 
technique  at  his  command,  but  he  had 
one  quality  which  American  art  until  then 
had  rarely  known,  namely,  colour. 

This  rare  gift  became  first  noticeable  in 
his  flower  pieces,  which  occupied  him 
during  the  years  1860-65.  His  water- 
lilies  are  a  revelation  of  colour.  The 
water  seems  to  take  a  green  reflection 
from  the  flower-sepals,  broken  lights  from 
the  white  blow  vibrate  all  through  it,  and 
the  sensitive  gold  of  the  stamens  at  the 
heart  of  the  lily  shines  through  the  white 
petals  quivering  in  the  sun. 

Soon  after  he  began  his  decorative  work 
for  both  private  and  public  buildings,  by 
which  he  gained  an  international  reputa- 
tion, and  which  was  only  now  and  then 
interrupted  by  the  occasional  painting  of 
a  landscape.  In  1867  the  architect  H.  H. 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  179 

Richardson  saw  some  panels  La  Farge 
had  made  for  a  gentleman's  dining-room, 
and  promised  the  artist  the  first  deco- 
rative work  at  his  disposal.  The  oppor- 
tunity came  in  1876,  when  the  building 
committee  of  the  Trinity  Church,  Boston, 
engaged  La  Farge  to  undertake  the  whole 
mural  decoration  of  the  new  edifice,  the 
most  ambitious  attempt  at  church  deco- 
ration ever  undertaken  in  this  country. 
The  time  allowed  was  very  short,  but  he 
proceeded  to  carry  it  out,  selecting  as 
chief  assistant  Francis  L.  Lathrop. 

The  character  of  the  designs  and  orna- 
mentation is,  on  the  whole,  well  in  keep- 
ing with  the  Romanesque  style  of  the 
church,  and  the  groups  of  small  nude 
figures  in  the  spandrels  at  the  top  of 
the  tower  interior  have  been  excellently 
painted.  The  large  figures  lower  down 
are  of  inferior  quality.  They  too  plainly 
show  the  haste  with  which  the  work  was 


l8o       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

executed.  The  two  prophets  on  the  north 
wall,  however,  just  over  the  chancel,  stand 
robed  in  an  agreeable  delicacy  of  tint,  and 
in  them  the  want  of  good  drawing  is  less 
pronounced.  A  few  years  later  La  Farge 
painted  with  more  deliberation  two  simple 
compositions  depicting  "  Christ  and  the 
Woman  of  Samaria "  and  "  Christ  and 
Nicodemus,"  the  latter  one  of  his  master- 
pieces. 

Other  important  work  quickly  followed. 
Two  frescoes  and  the  decoration  of  the 
St.  Thomas  Church,  New  York,  the 
King's  Memorial  at  Newport,  the  stair- 
case panels  and  ceiling  at  the  Vanderbilt 
mansion,  and  the  "Adoration  of  the 
Magi,"  at  the  Church  of  Incarnation, 
New  York,  gave  wide  scope  for  splendour 
and  brilliancy  of  colour.  The  best  that 
this  artist  has  yet  accomplished  in  the 
way  of  work  upon  a  church  interior  is  his 
painting  of  the  "  Ascension  "  at  the  little 


Fiom  a  Copley  Print.  —  Copyright,  !«»!,  by  Curtis  &  Co. 

LA  FAROE.  —  CHRIST  AND  NICODEMUS. 


THE    OLD    SCHOOL.  183 

church  on  the  corner  of  Tenth  Street  and 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.  There  is  an 
absence  of  religious  feeling  noticeable  in 
all  his  pictures.  There  is  a  large  degree 
of  technical  incompleteness  in  nearly  all 
his  work.  At  some  points  his  hands  seem 
to  refuse  to  do  their  work  and  begin  to 
grope.  He  has  no  scruples  whatever  in 
applying  figures  of  new  and  old  masters, 
and  leaving  it  to  his  assistants  to  enlarge 
his  designs.  He  knew  well  enough  that 
his  colour  would  atone  for  all  his  sins  and 
shortcomings.  His  colours,  although  they 
have  something  of  the  barbaric  sumptu- 
ousness  of  the  Orient,  glow  in  the  proper 
environment  with  a  dim  luminous  beauty, 
with  a  spirit  and  life  of  their  own.  They 
stamp  everything  he  touches  with  the 
seal  of  genius. 

Of  late  he  has  devoted  much  of  his 
time  to  water-colours,  for  which  he  has 
undertaken  journeys  to  Japan,  Ceylon, 


184       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Samoa,  the  Fiji  Islands,  and  other  remote 
corners  of  the  globe.  Their  drawing  is 
often  very  feeble,  but  their  rhythmic  notes 
of  colour  invariably  redeem  their  other 
shortcomings.  They  are  as  strong  as  in 
the  days  when  he  painted  his  "  Newport, 
Paradise"  (Academy  exhibition  about 
1870),  a  vast  landscape  in  morning  light, 
scintillant  with  sunbeams,  in  which  sepa- 
rate colours  are  almost  indiscernible. 
Pink,  green,  violet,  dark  and  pale  blue 
tints,  and  other  subtle  melodies  of  colour 
flit  and  flame  across  the  canvas  like  a  gor- 
geous pageantry,  like  a  palpitating  blaze 
of  jewels,  and  yet  unite  to  a  perfect  har- 
mony. 

La  Farge  was  also  the  first  to  manu- 
facture stained  glass  to  suit  his  own 
purposes.  He  originated  the  style  of 
painting  merely  the  face,  hands,  and 
flesh-tones  of  the  figure  and  of  construct- 
ing the  drapery  and  accessories  of  opales- 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  185 

cent  glass,  the  fibrous  texture  of  which 
replaces  the  drawing.  Such  a  piece  of 
glass,  with  all  its  surface  corrugations  and 
stratifications,  is  a  work  of  art  in  itself. 
Before  the  work  on  Trinity  was  begun,  he 
had  made  his  first  experiments,  but  not 
before  1881,  when  he  constructed  the 
Harvard  Memorial  Window,  did  he  suc- 
ceed, to  his  own  complete  satisfaction,  in 
producing  pieces  of  glass  of  a  certain 
colour  which  were  inlaid  or  sprinkled  with 
one  another.  In  his  windows  at  the 
Church  of  Ascension,  we  see  effects  alto- 
gether novel  in  this  art.  The  depth  and 
purity  of  colour  have  almost  the  quality  of 
painting  and,  although  utterly  unlike  the 
ancient  examples  in  arrangement  and 
spirit,  they  surpass  mediaeval  work  in 
regard  to  richness  and  splendour.  His 
"Christ  and  Nicodemus"  is  his  master- 
piece in  this  department,  as  is  his  "  As- 
cension "  in  religious  mural  painting. 


1 86       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Followers  La  Farge  had  many,  but  no 
successor  to  him  has  arisen  among  them. 
Francis  Lathrop,  who  studied  with  Madox 
Brown,  reproduced  the  spirit  of  the  Pre- 
Raphaelite  painters  with  a  great  deal  of 
sympathy,  but  without  special  accentua- 
tion. Crownin shield  introduced  barbaric 
sumptuousness  into  interior  decoration, 
and  Louis  C.  Tiffany,  once  a  painter  of 
European  street  scenes,  carried  into  the 
sphere  of  professional  decoration  all  the 
inventive  taste,  and  freedom  from  con- 
ventionality which  he  displayed  in  the 
execution  of  his  first  important  work,  the 
windows  and  wall  paintings  of  the  Union 
League  Club.  Other  notable  workers  in 
this  field  are  Lamb,  Armstrong,  and 
Heinigke,  and  H.  J.  Thouron  in  Philadel- 
phia. The  construction  of  stained  glass 
windows,  although  La  Farge's  work  has 
never  been  surpassed,  has  steadily  pro- 
gressed, but  church  decoration  seems  to 


THE    OLD   SCHOOL.  187 

rest  solely  in  the  hands  of  La  Farge. 
Nothing  has  been  done  that  compares 
with  his  work. 

At  present  Violet  Oakley  (1874-  )  is 
engaged  on  a  big  triptych  for  the  Church 
of  Angels,  New  York,  the  centre  in  mosaic, 
which  promises  to  be  well  drawn,  and 
interesting  in  its  line,  space,  and  colour 
composition,  with  a  delightful  parallelism 
and  repetition  of  figures.  The  religious 
feeling,  which  is  generally  missing  in 
such  works,  is  quite  pronounced  in  Violet 
Oakley's  art.  It  is  superior,  at  any  rate,  to 
M.  L.  Macomber's  religious  sentimental- 
ism  and  E.  Daingerfield's  attitude  of  devo- 
tion, but  whether  it  is  strong  enough  to 
lend  her  work  a  striking  individuality  — 
to  do  what  colour  did  for  La  Farge  —  is 
another  question. 

Colour  was  also  the  principal  charm 
of  two  other  men.  W.  A.  Babcock,  who 
spent  nearly  all  his  life  at  Barbizon,  was  a 


1 88       A    HISTORY    OF    AMERICAN    ART. 

sympathetic  and  poetic  painter  of  nudes 
and  costumed  figures.  His  colour  is  soft 
and  luminous.  R.  L.  Newman  (1827-  ), 
of  whose  works  John  Gellatly's  private 
gallery  contains  thirty  examples,  is  a  col- 
ourist  in  the  sense  of  the  old  masters.  He 
excels  in  richness  and  satiety  of  separate 
tones,  and  is  clever  in  bringing  them  into 
proper  relationship.  His  Madonnas,  Red 
Riding-Hoods,  reading  girls,  classical  fig- 
ures with  animals,  "  Christ  Walking  on  the 
Sea,"  etc.,  are  colour  dreams  pure  and 
simple.  As  subjects  they  have  but  little 
interest.  His  colour,  as  well  as  Bab- 
cock's,  is  purely  sensuous  in  its  effect,  it 
does  not  arouse  the  finer  qualities  of  emo- 
tional imagination.  Their  art  is  not  vi- 
brant enough,  it  never  loses  itself  beyond 
the  material,  where  one  forgets  oil  paints 
altogether,  where  they  melt  into  the  lyri- 
cisms of  soul  as  in  Ryder,  for  instance. 
Newman's  and  Babcock's  perceptibilities 


THE    OLD    SCHOOL.  189 

come  to  a  standstill  in  the  act  of  trans- 
forming vague  inspirations  into  colour, 
and  only  here  and  there  they  soar  a 
little  beyond  it.  He  held  a  representa- 
tive exhibition  of  his  work  at  Goupil 
gallery  in  1894. 

We  now  come  to  that  phase  of  art 
which  was  the  realisation  of  what  all  the 
men  since  1828  had  struggled  for,  the 
beginning  of  a  native  art,  and  which 
is  best  represented  by  Winslow  Homer 
(1836-  )  and  Thomas  Eakins  (1844-  ). 
Both  are  still  working  to-day,  and  their 
work  has  rather  increased  than  lost  in 
interest.  I  mention  them  in  this  chapter, 
because  they  asserted  themselves  long 
before  the  appearance  of  the  so-called 
new  school  of  1878,  and  because  the  ten- 
dency to  depict  reality,  which  they  persist- 
ently clung  to  during  all  their  career,  has 
been  superseded  by  other  aims  and  ideals 
of  art. 


IQO       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

It  is  extremely  seldom  that  we  find  an 
American  artist  who  is  also  American 
by  nature.  The  majority  of  our  artists 
have,  through  their  European  schooling, 
acquired  a  foreign  way  of  looking  at  things 
that  can  be  readily  traced  to  Paris,  Lon- 
don, or  Munich.  A  few,  and  among  them 
the  best,  pose,  like  Whistler,  as  cosmo- 
politans. They  profess  to  believe  that  art 
is  universal,  that  nationality  has  nothing 
or  but  little  to  do  with  its  development; 
and  yet  they  contradict  this  attitude  in 
admiring  Japanese  art,  which  in  recent 
decades  has  taken  the  place  occupied  at 
the  beginning  of  this  century  by  Grecian 
and  Roman  art. 

For  Japanese  art  is  above  all  else  a  con- 
densed and  clarified  expression  of  racial 
and  national  traits.  Gradually,  through 
the  centuries,  Japanese  art  has  developed 
out  of  the  mythological  and  religious 
beliefs,  out  of  the  peculiar  customs  and 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  19! 

manners  of  that  artistic  people  and  the 
environment  and  climate  in  which  it 
lives.  If  our  artists  believe  in  Japanese 
art,  they  should  endeavour  to  understand 
its  spirit,  and  not  overlook  the  causes  of 
its  most  rigid  laws.  True  enough,  our 
American  nation,  through  the  influences 
of  incessant  immigration,  has  not  yet 
attained  its  final  equilibrium.  Our  con- 
ditions of  life  are  still  too  confused  for 
sharply  defined  expressions,  such  as  we 
find  in  Paris,  for  instance,  where  every- 
thing has  been  classified  by  long  famil- 
iarity. Nearly  all  the  masterpieces  of 
American  painting  —  I  mean  those 
painted  in  America  by  Americans  —  show 
refinement  rather  than  strength,  which  is 
peculiar,  as  strength  is  undoubtedly  more 
characteristic  of  a  young  country  like  the 
United  States  than  the  suave,  sensuous 
style  of  a  Dewing  or  Tryon. 

American  men  and  women  of  advanced 


A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

taste,  such  as  can  afford  to  patronise 
art,  turn  rather  to  epicureanism  than  to 
simplicity  and  strength.  After  accumu- 
lating their  wealth,  the  rich  have  every- 
thing at  their  command,  except  the 
super-refinement  of  taste  and  manners 
which  the  European  nobility  have  ac- 
quired through  centuries  of  indolence. 
The  Anglomania  and  love  of  titles  of  our 
plutocracy  is  only  a  natural  outcome  of 
existing  conditions. 

Therefore,  the  lack  of  rough,  manly 
force,  and  the  prevailing  tendency  to  ex- 
cel in  delicacy  and  subtlety  of  expression. 
The  Michael  Angelo  strain  is  lacking 
almost  entirely  in  our  art.  Walt  Whit- 
man's "  Others  may  praise  what  they  like, 
but  I,  from  the  banks  of  the  running  Mis- 
souri, praise  nothing  in  art  or  else,  till  it 
has  well  inhaled  the  atmosphere  of  this 
river,  also  the  Western  prairie  scent,  and 
exudes  it  all  again,"  was  a  voice  in  the 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  193 

wilderness.  The  artists  have  taken  no 
heed  of  it.  Only  men  like  Winslow 
Homer  or  Thomas  Eakins  have  endorsed 
it  to  a  certain  extent  with  their  work,  the 
only  two  men  who  are  masters  in  the  art 
of  painting,  and  at  the  same  time  have 
strong,  frank,  and  decided  ways  of  ex- 
pressing something  American. 

Winslow  Homer  began  his  career  as 
a  lithographer  in  Buffalo.  During  a  stay 
in  Boston  he  designed  for  the  wood-en- 
gravers. In  1859  he  moved  to  New  York, 
and  after  a  visit  to  England  he  retired  to 
Scarboro,  Maine,  where  he  lives,  as  far 
as  polite  society  is  concerned,  in  absolute 
isolation,  coming  in  contact  only  with 
nature  and  the  seafaring  folks  that  live 
around  him. 

Aggressive  in  disposition,  he  engaged 
in  a  bitter  warfare  against  all  convention- 
ality, scorning  alike  all  accepted  schools, 
claiming  that  nature,  studied  from  the 


194       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

standpoint  of  observation  and  discern- 
ment  rather  than  that  of  intellectuality 
or  sentiment,  should  be  the  only  founda- 
tion of  art.  From  this  standpoint  his 
great  naturalism  sprang  into  life.  Take 
for  instance  his  "  Lookout,"  exhibited  at 
the  Society,  spring  1897.  It  is  a  master- 
piece. Words  cannot  increase  or  depre- 
ciate its  value;  it  speaks  for  itself.  A 
glimpse  of  the  swaying  upper  deck  of  a 
vessel;  the  sea,  white  in  the  starlight  over 
the  rail;  and  just  under  the  ship's  bell  a 
lifted  hand  and  a  rugged  face  —  stern  and 
weather-beaten  like  the  brazen  bell  — 
with  parted  lips,  shouting  "  All's  well." 

A  crude  and  angular  art,  but  classic  in 
its  dignity  and  strength.  The  figure,  a 
little  awkward  perhaps,  is  a  living,  moving, 
breathing  being,  an  expression  of  absolute 
reality. 

The  emotion  which  such  a  picture 
arouses  is  enough  to  make  one  abjure 


HOMER.  —  INSIDE  THE  BAR. 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  197 

academic  art  for  ever.  It  seems  as  if 
there  is  nothing  really  lasting,  nothing 
that  will  endure,  but  the  sincere  expres- 
sion of  the  actual  conditions  of  life. 

His  technique  has  steadily  improved, 
—  his  colour,  formerly  rather  neutral 
and  cold,  has  of  late  grown  more  vivid 
and  impressive;  but  his  work  in  the  six- 
ties and  early  seventies,  including  "  Inside 
the  Bar "  and  "  Listening  to  the  Voice 
from  the  Cliffs,"  already  showed  all  his 
directness  of  expression,  and  his  love  for 
truth  and  strength,  so  apparent  in  his 
"Visit  from  the  Old  Mistress"  (1879) 
and  "Life  Line"  (1884). 

Profoundly  moved  by  a  certain  kind  of 
roughness  and  wildness  in  nature  and  in 
man,  he  became  the  painter  of  the  long- 
shoremen ;  of  the  adventurous  existence  of 
our  life-saving  crew ;  of  the  pioneers  of  civ- 
ilisation, prospecting  the  Western  wilds ;  of 
farmhands  in  shirt-sleeves  and  coarse  hide 


198        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

boots,  on  the  fields  and  hillsides  of  New 
England;  of  negroes  and  their  humble 
shanties  and  the  queer  habits  of  Southern 
plantation  life;  of  soldiers  around  camp- 
fires  ;  and  of  country  children,  real  Yankee 
boys  and  girls,  playing  by  the  quaint  little 
schoolhouse,  under  boughs  of  apple-trees 
in  bloom,  through  which  the  sun  is  sifting, 
or  romping  over  the  fields  dotted  with 
rural  homes.  He  has  also  painted  types 
of  other  countries,  always  with  an  Ameri- 
can accent,  however,  —  for  instance,  his 
famous  Gloucester  studies,  the  fisher- 
women  of  Tynemouth,  —  but  the  bulk  of 
his  work  is  American.  And  it  is  this 
national  quality  which  makes  Winslow 
Homer  great.  Nobody  could  mistake 
the  nationality  of  the  rustic  humanity  he 
represents.  Nobody  could  doubt  that 
Winslow  Homer  is  an  American  by  birth 
and  nature. 

Whenever  Winslow  Homer's  name  is 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  199 

mentioned,  there  rises  in  my  mind  a  pic- 
ture, a  picture  of  rare  and  uncouth 
beauty:  a  sandy  shore,  lined  by  a  wall 
of  chalky  rocks,  a  wide  wind-worn  sweep 
of  a  grayish  black  sea,  heaving  slowly  with 
the  rise  and  fall  of  billows  under  a  cloudy 
sky.  The  dark  silhouette  of  a  sail  is  seen 
against  a  streak  of  white  light  at  the  hori- 
zon. And  in  this  scene  of  desolation  a 
sturdy  young  woman  strides  vigorously 
against  the  gale,  her  garments  twisted  in 
quaint  flowing  lines  around  her. 

Winslow  Homer  paints  prose,  but  a 
prose  of  epic  breadth.  The  breath  of  out- 
of-doors  is  in  his  pictures.  We  excuse  the 
false  notes  in  his  flesh  tints,  his  awkward 
linear  beauty,  his  neglect  of  values,  his 
crude  key  of  colours,  for  there  is  poetry  in 
the  pulsation  of  his  air,  in  his  turbulent 
waves,  in  his  fishing-boats  riding  out  a 
gale,  as  well  as  in  the  statuesque  beauty 
of  his  men  and  women,  whose  plastic 


2OO       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

immobility  has  something  of  the  angular 
outlines  of  the  old  New  Englanders.  In 
all  his  work  there  is  something  that 
reminds  one  of  the  ancient  sea  winds, 
which  sung  around  the  cliffs  ages  ago, 
something  as  monumental  as  the  rugged 
cliffs  themselves,  which  have  defied  the 
sun  and  storms  of  centuries. 

To-day  his  vision  is  as  fresh  and  uncon- 
ventional and  his  power  and  individuality 
as  indisputable  as  ever.  His  "  In  the 
Gulf  Stream,"  exhibited  at  Knoedler's  in 
1901,  is  one  of  the  greatest  pictures  ever 
painted  in  America. 

His  brother  artist,  Thomas  Eakins, 
of  Philadelphia,  is  quite  a  different  char- 
acter. Nearly  every  one  who  looks  at 
his  "  Operation,"  the  portrait  of  Doctor 
Gross,  a  Philadelphia  medical  celebrity, 
lecturing  to  a  class  of  students  in  a 
college  amphitheatre,  exclaims,  "  How 
brutal!"  And  yet  it  has  only  the  bru- 


EAKINS.  —  OPERATION. 


THE    OLD   SCHOOL.  2C»3 

tality  the  subject  demands.  Our  Ameri- 
can art  is  so  effeminate  at  present 
that  it  would  do  no  harm  to  have  it 
inoculated  with  just  some  of  that  bru- 
tality. Among  our  mentally  barren,  from 
photograph  working,  and  yet  so  blase, 
sweet-caramel  artists,  it  is  as  refreshing  as 
a  whiff  of  the  sea,  to  meet  with  such  a 
rugged,  powerful  personality.  Eakins,  like 
Whitman,  sees  beauty  in  everything.  He 
does  not  always  succeed  in  expressing  it, 
but  all  his  pictures  impress  one  by  their 
dignity  and  unbridled  masculine  power. 
How  crude  his  art  is  at  times  we  see  in 
the  startling  effect  of  blood  on  the  sur- 
geon's right  hand,  in  the  portrait  of 
Dr.  W.  D.  Marks. 

As  a  manipulator  of  the  brush,  however, 
he  ranks  with  the  best ;  he  does  not  stip- 
ple, cross-hatch,  or  glaze,  but  slaps  his 
colours  on  the  canvas  with  a  sure  hand, 
and  realises  solidity  and  depth.  His 


2O4       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

work  may  here  and  there  be  too  severe 
to  be  called  beautiful,  but  it  is  manly 
throughout  —  it  has  muscles  —  and  is 
nearer  to  great  art  than  almost  any- 
thing we  can  see  in  America. 

His  "  Christ  on  the  Cross,"  a  lean, 
lone  figure  set  against  a  glaring  sky, — 
austere,  uncouth,  and  diabolically  realistic 
as  it  is,  —  is  a  masterpiece  of  artistic  anat- 
omy, in  the  knowledge  of  which  nobody 
approaches  him  in  this  country. 

Thomas  Eakins's  art  and  personality 
remind  one  of  the  dissecting  room  (where 
he  has  spent  so  many  hours  of  his  life),  of 
the  pallor  of  corpses,  the  gleam  of  knives 
spotted  with  red,  the  calm,  cool,  deadly 
atmosphere  of  these  modern  anatomy  les- 
sons with  the  light  concentrated  upon 
the  dissecting  table,  while  the  rest  of 
the  room  is  drowned  in  dismal  shadows. 
And  yet,  with  all  his  sturdy,  robust 
appearance,  he  is  as  nai've  and  awkward 


H 

< 


THE    OLD    SCHOOL.  2O7 

as  a  big  child  that  has  grown  up  too 
fast,  and  his  eyes  have  the  far-away 
look  of  the  dreamer.  Indeed  a  quaint, 
powerful  personality! 

Of  the  younger  men  H.  M.  Hartshorne 
shows  a  good  deal  of  brutal  vigour. 

During  these  years  that  brought  Hunt, 
La  Farge,  Homer,  and  Eakins  to  the 
front,  there  lived  in  Deerfield,  Mass.,  in 
utter  seclusion,  a  painter  —  already  about 
fifty  years  old  —  who  was  destined  to  be- 
come the  greatest  genius  which  the  art  of 
our  country  has  produced. 

In  1878  there  hung  a  picture  on  the 
walls  of  the  New  York  Academy  called 
"  A  Turkey  Pasture  "  (owned  by  W.  H. 
Abercrombie,  Brookline,  Mass.),  simple  in 
theme,  sober  in  tone,  telling  no  story, 
which  at  once  won  the  painter  fame  and 
patronage  and  secured  him  a  position  by 
the  side  of  the  most  daring  painters  of  the 
new  school.  This  picture  bore  the  signa- 


2C>8        A    HISTORY    OF    AMERICAN    ART. 

ture  of  George  Fuller  (1822-84).  After 
seventeen  years  of  seclusion  the  fifty-six 
years  old  painter  had  returned,  not  a  be- 
ginner but  a  veteran,  and  yet  a  debutant 
once  more.  His  first  triumph  was 
rapidly  followed  by  others.  His  "  Quad- 
roon," "Winifred  Dysart"  (owned  by  J. 
M.  Sears,  Boston),  "Psyche,"  "  Nydia," 
"  The  Romany  Girl "  (owned  by  Mrs.  J. 
T.  Williams,  New  York),  "Priscilla" 
(owned  by  F.  L.  Ames,  Boston),  and 
"  The  Berry  Pickers  "  placed  him  among 
the  first  painters  of  the  world. 

George  Fuller  came  of  Puritan  stock 
and  was  born  at  Deerfield,  Mass.  An 
instinct  of  art  which  ran  in  the  family 
asserted  itself  already  during  his  child- 
hood. At  the  age  of  twenty  he  estab- 
lished himself  in  a  studio  at  Albany,  paint- 
ing portraits  and  enjoying  the  tuition  of 
the  sculptor,  Henry  Kirke  Brown.  Hence 
he  shifted  to  Boston  and  a  few  years  later 


THE   OLD    SCHOOL.  2OQ 

to  New  York,  where  he  worked  in  the  life 
classes  of  the  Academy.  On  the  strength 
of  a  portrait  of  his  friend  and  teacher 
Brown,  he  was  elected  associate  of  the 
National  Academy.  After  spending  a 
winter  in  the  South,  he  went  to  Europe, 
not  to  study,  but  to  learn  from  nature, 
and  from  mediaeval  art  treasures.  He 
visited  London,  Paris,  Amsterdam,  Flor- 
ence, Rome,  and  Sicily,  and  returned  in 
1860  to  America,  but  not  to  portraiture. 
Dissatisfied  with  his  previous  efforts,  and 
filled  with  strange  visions,  he  seems  to 
have  felt  that  if  he  were  ever  to  work 
his  way,  it  would  be  on  the  strength 
of  his  own  efforts.  He  shut  himself  up 
in  his  Deerfield  home,  took  to  farming, 
and  the  world  of  exhibitions,  of  dealers 
and  buyers,  of  artists  and  critics,  knew 
him  no  more,  and  there,  close  to  nature, 
he  mastered  the  heights  and  depths  and 
mysteries  of  his  craft. 


2IO       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Fuller's  pictures  are  so  simple  that  one 
is  not  impressed  by  a  surprising  technique 
or  some  startling  effect ;  he  is  a  poet  who 
interprets  quiet  scenes  of  the  simple  life 
of  the  fields,  or  more  often  some  study  of 
character,  evolved  from  within  his  own 
nature.  All  his  work  has  a  subdued  yet 
glowing  colour,  a  somewhat  wilful  chiaros- 
curo, a  groping,  hesitating  touch  (often 
caused  by  drawing  in  the  half-dry  paint 
with  the  handle  of  his  brush),  and  a  misty 
vagueness  of  effect  in  common.  His  pic- 
tures were  never  pictures  of  definite  locali- 
ties and  personalities,  but  idealised  visions 
of  shadowy  outlines  and  soft  rich  colour, 
rising  from  vague  backgrounds.  It  is  sel- 
dom that  he  chose  a  subject  of  literary 
interest,  like  his  "  Priscilla,"  and  even 
there  it  is  a  matter  of  conjecture  whether 
the  shy,  startled  girl,  with  one  hand 
raised  in  a  gentle,  half-bewildered  ges- 
ture, is  really  Longfellow's  heroine. 


THE   OLD  SCHOOL.  211 

In  his  "Winifred  Dysart"  we  see  the 
figure  of  a  frail  young  girl  dressed  in  a 
pale  lilac  gown,  —  holding  a  small  empty 
jug  in  one  hand,  —  against  a  landscape 
background  of  delicate  gray  with  a  very 
high  horizon  line,  which  affords  merely  a 
glimpse  of  a  cloud-streaked  sunset  sky. 

In  the  "  Quadroon  "  (owned  by  Mrs.  S. 
D.  Warren,  Boston),  a  rather  more  force- 
ful chord  is  struck.  Sitting  in  the  corn- 
fields with  her  arms  resting  on  her  knees, 
her  large  sad  eyes  turned  to  us,  she  ex- 
presses the  mystery  and  suffering  of  her 
race. 

"And  She  Was  a  Witch"  (at  the 
Metropolitan  Museum)  represents  a  wood 
interior;  in  the  distance,  through  tall 
tree-trunks  a  woman  is  led  away  to  the 
dread  tribunal,  while  in  the  foreground  a 
young  girl  seeks  refuge  at  the  door  of  her 
humble  dwelling.  I  know  of  no  other 
modern  painter  who  could  master  such 


212        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

a  subject,  unless  it  were  Matthew  Maris. 
Fuller  always  realises  that  true  pictorial 
charm,  which  is  neither  descriptive  nor 
meditative  merely,  but  is  inseparable  from 
the  special  form  in  which  it  is  conveyed 
as  the  musical  charm  of  a  song.  His 
"  Nude,"  sitting  listlessly  on  the  ground, 
her  rosy  flesh  tints  shimmering  faintly 
through  the  soft  golden  hue  which  per- 
vades the  picture,  clings  to  our  memory 
like  a  strain  of  music  that  we  have  heard 
in  the  twilight  and  that  has  haunted  us 
ever  since. 

It  is,  however,  to  his  "  Romany  Girl n 
that  Fuller  owes  his  greatest  renown. 
What  singular  elusive  charm,  what  wealth 
of  expression  radiates  from  the  wild-eyed, 
passionate,  yet  tender  face  and  lies  hidden 
in  the  subtle  animation  of  the  reposeful 
figure !  In  her  eyes  is  something  of  that 
expression  of  life  and  beauty  which 
quivers  on  the  lips  of  Mona  Lisa,  some- 


FULLER.  —  ROMANY  GIRL. 


THE   OLD   SCHOOL.  21$ 

thing  of  that  subdued  and  graceful  mys- 
tery, which  can  be  found  in  the  best  of 
Leonardo's  work. 

Fuller  was  doubtless  one  of  the  most 
powerful  exponents  of  poetic  or  emotional 
paint  the  world  has  ever  seen.  To  recog- 
nise how  curiously  complete  he  is,  we 
must  note  how  difficult,  nay  impossible, 
it  is  for  us  to  follow  him  into  his  work- 
shop. He  withdraws  completely  from  the 
reach  of  our  examination.  And  this  has, 
certainly  in  his  case,  led  to  some  odd  mis- 
understandings of  his  position  as  man  and 
as  artist.  Fuller  has  been  said  to  be 
more  of  a  poet  than  a  painter.  He  has 
even  been  pitied  like  Millet  for  not  being 
able  to  paint  at  all,  and  blamed  for  not 
drawing  directly  from  the  model.  What 
an  extraordinary  misapprehension  of  both 
the  man  and  his  art.  If  we  take  him 
as  a  colourist  alone,  Fuller  has  given  us 
enough  to  make  a  name  for  half  a  dozen 


2l6       A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

painters.  He  has  presented  us  with  great 
problems  in  colour,  tone,  and  light,  and 
his  sense  of  the  largeness  of  things,  and 
his  rich  and  luminous  touch,  reminds  us 
of  the  school  of  Giorgione.  Because,  be- 
sides all  this,  his  work  was  dominated  by 
another  element,  the  powerful  melancholy 
sentiment  of  his  poetic  temperament,  be- 
cause in  fact  he  has  solved  with  his  paint 
the  more  difficult  rather  than  the  easier 
problem,  should  he  not  be  classed  first  of 
all  as  a  painter — as  our  foremost  painter? 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    NEW    SCHOOL. 

'OWARD  the  middle  of  the  sev- 
enties a  great  change  came  over 
our  American  art.  The  large 
exodus  of  students  to  Parisian  and  Mu- 
nich schools,  to  foreign  studios  and  gal- 
leries, had  begun  a  few  years  before,  and 
its  results  were  just  returning  to  us  in  the 
shape  of  a  throng  of  vigorous,  eager,  cos- 
mopolitan young  painters,  all  alike  disre- 
gardful  of  older  American  traditions  and 
filled  with  new  ideas  on  every  subject. 
The  realm  of  technical  possibilities  had 
been  explored.  Gerome  and  Lefebvre, 
Carolus  Duran  and  Bouguereau,  and  the 
Julien,  Coralossi  and  Academic  des  Beaux 
Arts  schools  in  Paris,  and  the  Piloty  and 


2l8       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Dietz  schools  in  Munich,  had  given 
ample  proof  of  the  superiority  of  Euro- 
pean teaching.  Fine  draughtsmanship, 
bold  and  fluent  execution  of  the  brush, 
and  careful  observation  had  become  com- 
mon property  of  all  art  students.  The 
innovations  of  the  plein  air  school  had 
found  ready  appreciation,  and  the  realism 
of  Bastien-Lepage  occupied  the  minds  of 
the  younger  men. 

The  years  1876-78  were  red-letter  days 
in  the  annals  of  American  art  history. 
One  event  of  importance  was  crowding 
upon  the  other. 

The  Centennial  Exhibition  had  just 
taken  place.  Religious  mural  painting 
had  a  renaissance  under  the  leadership 
of  La  Farge.  St.  Gaudens  had  found  in 
1877  ti16  first  opportunity  to  reveal  his 
talents  in  the  "Adoration  of  the  Cross," 
a  group  of  angels  at  the  St.  Thomas 
Church.  In  1878  W.  M.  Hunt's  mural 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  2IQ 

paintings  were  put  up  in  the  Senate 
Chamber  of  the  Albany  State-house.  A 
new  interest  in  etching  was  aroused,  and 
wood-engraving  suddenly  soared  to  its 
pinnacle  of  perfection. 

The  most  important  of  these  events, 
however,  was  the  foundation  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  American  Artists  in  1878.  Already, 
in  the  spring  exhibition  of  1874,  a  num- 
ber of  pictures  attracted  attention,  which, 
beside  the  carefully  finished  and  dull- 
toned  canvases  of  the  old  academicians, 
looked  like  vista  through  wide  open  win- 
dows. They  were  the  subject  of  a  most 
violent  controversy,  in  which  the  theories 
of  the  old  and  new  schools  clashed,  and 
resulted  finally  in  their  separation.  The 
two  Munich  men,  Walter  Shirlaw  and 
W.  M.  Chase  (1849-  ),  were  the  leaders 
of  the  movement.  Of  the  older  men, 
Inness,  Fuller,  Hunt,  Chas.  H.  Miller, 
and  Thomas  Moran  sympathised  with 


22O       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

the  movement.  The  first  exhibition  of 
the  Society,  held  at  the  Kurtz  Gallery, 
March- April,  1878,  contained  works  by 
Bridgman,  De  Forrest  Brush,  Chase, 
Colman,  Currier,  Dannat,  Dewing,  Duve- 
neck,  Eakins,  Wyatt  Eaton,  Fuller,  Hunt, 
Inness,  La  Farge,  Homer  Martin,  M.  R. 
Oakey,  C.  S.  Pearce,  Th.  Robinson,  Ryder, 
Sargent,  Shirlaw,  Thayer,  Tiffany,  Tryon, 
Twachtman,  D.  Volk,  Olin  Warner,  Weir, 
Whistler,  and  Wyant,  —  a  marvellous  list 
of  names,  embracing  nearly  all  those  who, 
by  their  lofty  standard,  have  helped  to 
raise  the  standard  of  modern  American 
art. 

;  It  was  not  this  marvellous  productive- 
ness alone  which  brought  about  this 
reform.  An  art  school,  in  which  the 
pupils  themselves  took  care  of  the  man- 
agement and  elected  their  own  teachers, 
was  opened.  The  Academy  instruction 
was  free,  the  League  self-supporting 


THE    NEW    SCHOOL.  221 

This  was  the  severe  test  of  its  merits. 
The  young  art  students,  however,  flocked 
to  the  new  institution,  which  not  only 
showed  them  the  use  of  tools,  but  gave 
them  a  facility  of  expression,  and  soon 
gained  a  considerable  surplus  in  its  treas- 
ury. The  rich  experience  of  Shirlaw,  and 
the  enthusiasm  of  Chase,  coupled  with  the 
severe  but  rational  methods  of  European 
academies,  hitherto  unknown  in  this 
country,  exercised  a  decided  influence 
on  the  technical  development  of  our  art. 
Among  the  teachers  were  Shirlaw,  Chase, 
Fitz,  Wyatt  Eaton,  Cox,  Beckwith,  Met- 
calf,  Twachtman,  Weir,  etc. 

Among  these  men,  who  strove  first  of 
all  for  technical  perfection,  B.  R.  Fitz 
(1855-91)  and  Wyatt  Eaton  (1849-90) 
were  undoubtedly  the  most  talented. 
Both  died  rather  young,  before  reaching 
full  maturity.  Wyatt  Eaton  painted  with 
a  superb  breadth,  and  his  broadening  of 


222        A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

details  has  rarely  been  surpassed.  His 
"  Ariadne,"  "  Daphne,"  "  La  Cigale,"  and 
"  Girl  with  Viol "  are  productions  remark- 
able for  their  vigour  and  solidity.  His 
mechanic  reproduction  in  pen  and  ink 
was  well-nigh  marvellous.  He  died  com- 
paratively unknown,  but  the  world  has 
crowned  his  work  with  posthumous  lau- 
rels. Fitz  had  less  strength,  and  was  of 
a  more  dreamy  disposition.  His  work  is 
low  in  tone,  reserved  in  colour,  and  beau- 
tiful in  line.  His  "  Reflection,"  painted 
in  1884,  is  the  best  nude  of  that  period. 
His  portraits,  delicate  and  refined,  were 
painted  with  commensurate  skill,  and  his 
landscapes  were  noticeable  for  their  warm 
and  mellow  tones.  He  was  cut  down  in 
the  flush  of  promise,  and  few  were  more 
lamented  than  this  master  of  form. 

The  art  of  several  of  the  other  men, 
who  won  their  spurs  a  decade  or  so  ago, 
retrograded  before  they  had  created  a 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  223 

style  of  their  own.  Kenyon  Cox,  Carroll 
Beckwith,  W.  H.  Low,  and  Walter  Shir- 
law  have  to  suffer  the  fate  that  their  later 
work  did  not  come  up  to  the  standard 
the  public  and  profession  had  expected 
after  seeing  their  youthful  efforts.  They 
no  longer  have  the  power  of  attract- 
ing people  who,  once  disillusioned,  have 
turned  away  to  others.  The  younger 
men  do  not  believe  any  more  in  them. 
And  yet  what  promising  work  did  they 
not  perform  at  the  start,  only  to  mention 
Cox's  "  Evening,"  Beckwith's  portraits  of 
Mr.  Isaacson  and  Mr.  Walton,  Low's 
"The  Day  of  the  Dead,"  and  Shirlaw's 
"  Sheep-shearing  in  the  Bavarian  Moun- 
tains," "  Goose  Girl,"  "  Man  with  a  Dog," 
and  his  foundry  studies,  "  Rolling  Steel 
Plates  "  and  "  Emptying  the  Crucible." 

Also  Frank  Duveneck,  now  a  resident 
of  Cincinnati,  passed  early  into  oblivion 
despite  the  marvellous  fecundity  and 


224       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

power  he  displayed  during  the  first  few 
years  after  his  return  from  Europe.  I 
have  watched  these  rapid  evolutions  from 
good  to  bad  more  than  once ;  they  are  just 
as  frequent  among  the  present  generation. 
Two  startling  examples  are  Frank  Eugene 
and  E.  A.  Bell.  On  examining  their  Eu- 
ropean work,  one  is  willing  to  concede 
a  unique  place  to  them;  but  in  their 
later  achievements  all  strength  seems 
to  have  departed  from  their  brushes. 
Perhaps  these  men  will  rouse  them- 
selves to  new  efforts  ;  if  not,  the  only 
explanation  I  can  find  for  the  deteriora- 
tion of  their  work  is  that  they  were  not 
made  of  the  stuff  which  produces  great 
artists. 

Most  of  our  own  young  art  students 
think  it  a  great  achievement  to  exhibit  a 
picture  or  a  statue  in  the  Salon,  not  com- 
prehending how  easy  it  really  is  to  pro- 
duce one  good  work  of  art,  as  long  as 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  225 

they  are  under  the  instruction  of  some 
modern  master,  in  continual  contact  with 
ambitious  colleagues,  and  exalted  by  the 
glory  of  French  art  treasures  that  have 
suddenly  burst  upon  them.  Such  hot- 
house inspirations  have  but  little  perma- 
nent value.  It  often  would  be  far  better 
if  these  young  talents  had  never  seen  a 
French  studio. 

The  majority  of  those  who  return  prove 
equally  unsuccessful  in  advancing  our  na- 
tive art.  Obliged  to  stand  on  their  own 
feet,  no  longer  sustained  by  competition, 
technical  advice,  and  by  the  suggestions 
derived  from  artistic  surroundings,  abso- 
lutely alone,  without  even  sympathy, 
generally  forced  to  earn  their  living  as 
artisans  or  in  some  branch  of  art  unsuit- 
able for  them,  they  only  too  often  find 
themselves  impotent  to  rise  above  unfor- 
tunate circumstances.  Dissatisfied  with 
themselves,  they  long  for  the  artistic 


226       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

atmosphere  of  Europe,  and  only  produce 
weak  reflections  of  foreign  art. 

William  M.  Chase  is  almost  the  only 
man  of  the  technical  innovators  of  1878 
who  has  steadily  improved.  All  his  work, 
no  matter  whether  portraiture,  still  life,  or 
landscape,  is  still  distinguished  by  the 
same  vitality,  by  the  same  flexibility  of 
execution,  which  enchanted  us  in  his 
earlier  work,  for  instance  "  The  Children 
of  Piloty."  He  widened  his  vision  and 
strengthened  his  technique  by  manifold 
trips  to  London,  Paris,  Holland,  and 
Spain,  and  the  study  of  Whistler  and 
Velasquez.  And  his  latest  work  is  still 
his  best ;  some  of  his  interiors  reveal  sub- 
tleties that  are  on  a  par  with  Degas. 

What  a  pity  that  Chase  should  aspire 
to  the  honours  of  a  Julien  instead  of 
simply  remaining  our  best  technical 
painter!  For  there  is  no  denying  that 
Chase  is  one  of  the  foremost  landscapists 


CHASE.  —  PORTRAIT  OF  A  CHILD. 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  2 29 

and  portrayists,  and  the  best  still-life 
painter  we  possess.  Few  can  handle 
the  painter's  brush  as  skilfully  as  he  on 
this  side  of  the  water.  With  him  every- 
thing is  first  impulse,  his  work  is  thrown 
off  with  brio,  the  enchantment  of  the 
brush  work  carries  it  along.  Why,  there 
are  passages  in  some  of  his  pictures  which 
even  brush  magicians  like  Whistler  and 
Zorn  cannot  surpass.  Chase  is  always 
clever.  Clever  is  a  word  often  misused. 
It  is  well  applied  to  him. 

There  is  nobody  who  can  cover  a  big 
canvas  with  such  ease,  rapidity,  and  skill, 
and  his  pictures  belong  to  the  best  in 
every  exhibition,  no  matter  what  their 
association  may  be.  But  above  all  else, 
he  is  the  painter  of  metal  surfaces,  of 
copper,  brass,  and  pewter  vessels.  What 
a  shiver  of  delight  must  run  through  his 
frame  when  he  dashes  in  the  high  lights 
in  his  still-life  pictures !  A  woman's  face 


230       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

is  scarcely  as  interesting  to  him  as  a 
copper  casserole.  .There  is  nobody  in 
America,  and  scarcely  any  one  in  Eu- 
rope, who  can  excel  him  in  painting 
brass.  There  is  a  shimmer  of  brass 
throughout  his  personality,  studio  splen- 
dour, and  work.  How  it  sparkles!  but 
the  sparkle  is  so  genuine,  because  he  has 
never  catered  to  the  taste  of  the  public, 
but  invariably  painted  for  his  pleasure. 
His  great  popularity,  however,  depends 
on  the  admiration  of  his  pupils,  upon 
whom  he  has  asserted  an  influence  which 
is  strongly  felt  in  American  art. 

Among  his  most  talented  pupils  are 
Emma  Sherwood,  Elizabeth  Forbes,  Mrs. 
Leslie  Cotton,  Seymour  Thomas,  Irving 
Wiles,  Ch.  C.  Curran,  Chas.  E.  Langley, 
E.  P.  Ullman,  and  Robert  Reid. 

Irving  Wiles  is  a  man  of  poetic  tem- 
perament, but  of  little  strength.  In  his 
work  we  discover  the  imprint  of  his  mas- 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  231 

ter,  but  with  a  smoother  and  more  pains- 
taking execution. 

Ch.  C.  Curran  succeeds  excellently  well 
in  making  his  pictures  look  limpid,  ultra- 
refined,  and  in  replacing  the  little  dash 
and  brilliancy  he  originally  had  by  a  sort 
of  sweet  sentimentality,  —  best  compared 
to  some  effeminate,  soft-flowing  cordial, 
served  in  dainty  porcelain  cups,  and 
meant,  I  suppose,  for  ladies  and  children. 
To  be  just  to  tractable  Curran,  however, 
one  must  never  forget  his  fantastic  Church 
rivalling  efforts.  His  "  Dream  "  (mimic 
worlds,  represented  by  soap  bubbles,  with 
reclining  nude  females,  floating  in  space) 
is  one  of  the  few  works  of  pure  imagina- 
tion which  our  practical  nineteenth  cent- 
ury America  has  produced. 

At  this  point  it  may  be  appropriate  to 
investigate  how  modern  technique  has  in- 
fluenced the  various  branches  of  art,  as 
marine,  cattle,  flower,  and  still-life  paint- 


232       A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

ing,  etc.,  which  in  the  art  of  the  ninteenth 
century  are  largely  represented  by  special- 
ists. In  order  to  be  just  to  all,  this  neces- 
sitates the  mention  of  many  artists  of  the 
older  school,  and  I  have  made  it  my  ob- 
ject to  treat  them  as  nearly  as  possible  in 
a  chronological  order. 

Our  marine  art  shows  a  number  of  able 
artists,  although  they  have  by  no  means 
been  so  numerous  or  capable  as  the  mar- 
itime character  of  our  people  might  lead 
us  to  expect. 

William  Bradford,  by  origin  a  Quaker, 
has  made  himself  a  name  for  his  enter- 
prise in  going  repeatedly  to  Labrador  to 
study  icebergs  and  lonely  coast  scenery. 
He  has  painted  some  spirited  composi- 
tions. Charles  Temple  Dix,  who  unfortu- 
nately died  young,  executed  some  dashing 
imaginative  and  promising  compositions, 
and  Harry  Brown,  of  Portland,  has  suc- 
cessfully rendered  certain  coast  effects. 


THE    NEW    SCHOOL.  233 

The  ablest  painter  of  that  period  was 
James  Hamilton,  of  Philadelphia.  His 
work  is  very  unequal,  sometimes  almost 
childish,  but  in  his  "Ancient  Mariner," 
and  similar  serious  compositions,  he 
showed  beyond  question  that  he  was 
an  artist  of  genius,  at  times  as  poetical 
as  Thomas  Cole.  His  colour  was  some- 
times crude,  but  he  handled  pigments 
with  skill,  and  composed  with  the  virile 
imagination  of  an  improvisatore.  His 
"  Last  Days  of  Pompeii,"  at  the  Memorial 
Building,  Philadelphia,  although  no  ma- 
rine, is  a  very  able  picture. 

The  most  popular  marine  painter  to 
this  day,  at  least  in  certain  parts  of  the 
country,  is  W.  T.  Richards  (1833-  ). 
He  is  fond  of  representing  a  strip  of 
shore  at  the  time  when  the  tide  comes 
rushing  in.  His  late  work  looks  rather 
mannered,  and  has  grown  monotonous  in 
its  everlasting  similarity  of  the  composi- 


234       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

tion  and  its  pale  green  colour;  but  few 
have  understood  the  construction  of  a 
wave  like  him.  He  is  well  represented 
by  "  The  Beach  "  in  the  Corcoran  Gallery 
and  "  The  Bell  Buoy"  at  the  Philadelphia 
Academy.  His  pictures  of  the  bleak, 
snow-like,  cedar-tufted  dunes  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  have  met  with  less  pub- 
lic favour,  while  his  woodland  scenes  are 
open  to  the  charge  of  being  too  green 
and  monotonous  in  colour.  A  Dutch 
painter  by  the  name  of  F.  H.  de  Haas, 
who  came  here  with  the  reputation  of 
having  been  court  painter  to  the  queen, 
had  a  decided  influence  on  our  art. 

By  far  more  talented  was  John  E.  C. 
Peters,  a  Dane  by  birth,  who  died  in  1878. 
When  he  first  began  to  paint  in  Boston, 
his  pictures  were  weak  in  colour  and  rude 
in  drawing.  But  he  improved  with  mar- 
vellous rapidity.  Every  inch  a  sailor,  a 
ship  to  him  was  no  clumsy  mass  laid  awk- 


THE    NEW    SCHOOL.  235 

wardly  on  the  top  of  the  water,  but  a 
thing  of  life,  with  an  individuality  of  its 
own.  "  Making  Sail  after  a  Storm,"  rep- 
resenting a  clipper  shaking  out  her  top- 
sails in  the  gray  gloom  succeeding  a 
storm,  is  a  strong  picture.  So  also  are 
his  "After  the  Collision"  and  "A  Ship 
Running  before  a  Squall." 

Also,  W.  E.  Norton  (1843-  )  made 
several  voyages  before  the  mast,  and  was 
therefore  well  equipped  as  far  as  observa- 
tion goes,  even  at  a  time  when  his  tech- 
nique was  still  hard  and  mechanical. 
His  best  picture  of  this  early  period  is 
probably  his  "  Fog  Horn "  representing 
two  men  in  a  dory  blowing  a  horn  to 
warn  away  a  steamer  stealthily  approach- 
ing them.  His  later  pictures,  largely  de- 
picting coast  scenes  with  crowds  of  fisher- 
folk,  painted  with  a  sensuous,  agreeable 
touch,  have  become  quite  popular.  Infe- 
rior in  the  knowledge  of  seamanship,  but 


236       A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

more  poetical  in  conception,  was  Arthur 
Quartley.  He  won  a  rapid  and  deserved 
reputation  for  coast  scenes  and  effects  of 
shimmering  light  on  water.  His  skies  are 
often  very  strong. 

A  peculiar  place  is  occupied  by  Gedney 
Bunce,  whose  large  marines  of  the  Adri- 
atic, shrouded  in  scumbled  mist,  are  note- 
worthy for  their  rich  tonality  of  liquid 
yellows.  Some  of  his  pictures  seem  to 
have  been  painted  with  ground-up  jewels, 
so  soft  and  full  is  the  lustre  of  their 
colouring. 

Among  the  younger  men,  Walter 
Dean,  of  Boston,  should  be  mentioned. 
His  "  Peace"  —  one  of  our  colossal  white 
men-of-war  in  full  sunlight  —  attracted 
considerable  attention  at  the  World's 
Fair.  He  is  the  painter  of  the  New 
England  fishing  population  at  work  in 
their  old  picturesque  boats.  F.  F.  Eng- 
lish did  some  delightful  work  before  he 


SNELL.  —  TWILIGHT  ON  THE  RIVER. 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  239 

retrograded  into  pot-boiling.  F.  K.  M. 
Rehn  and  W.  F.  Halsall  have  painted 
many  pleasing  marines  and  coast  views. 
But  it  is  not  the  specialists  who  have 
done  the  best  work  in  this  department. 
They  are  easily  eclipsed  by  Ryder,  who 
expresses  the  solid  mass  and  bulk  of  the 
ocean,  torn  by  the  storm  into  troughs 
and  crests  of  weltering  foam,  with  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  imagination.  Maria 
a  Becket,  inspired  by  genuine  enthusi- 
asm, has  rendered  some  of  the  wildest 
and  grandest  scenes  of  the  ocean,  and 
there  are  few  about  whose  works  there 
is  more  of  the  raciness  and  flavour  of 
water.  Also  Henry  B.  Snell  is  an  en- 
thusiastic student  of  the  sea.  How  well 
do  I  remember  his  "  Wreck  of  the  Jason," 
in  a  bluish-green  surf  with  quaint,  yellow, 
wind-flapped  sails  against  a  reddish-green 
sky ;  the  "  Haunt  of  the  Sea  Gulls,"  where 
white  birds  wing  around  bleak  rocks  over 


240       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

an  ultramarine  sea.  And  does  not  all  the 
work  of  the  specialists  pale  into  insignifi- 
cance beside  the  breadth,  power,  and  vital- 
ity of  Winslow  Homer's  waves,  that  dash 
against  the  solitary  rocks  of  the  North- 
ampton coast? 

Animal  painting  was  never  a  strong 
point  of  American  painters.  Our  school 
had  no  Snyder,  Moreland,  or  Landseer. 
The  cattle  pictures  of  the  Hart  brothers, 
of  Robinson  (Boston),  Peter  Moran,  and 
Ogden  Brown  are  as  unsympathetic  as 
those  of  Howe  and  Carleton  Wiggins 
nowadays. 

William  Hayes  showed  decided  ability 
in  his  representations  of  bisons,  prairie- 
dogs,  and  other  dogs.  Weak  in  colour, 
he  nevertheless  succeeded  in  giving  spirit 
and  character  to  the  groups  he  painted, 
and  among  our  animal  painters  holds  a 
position  not  unlike  Mount's  in  genre. 

T.  B.  Thorpe,  in  such  semi-humourous 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  241 

satires  as  "  A  Border  Inquest,"  represent- 
ing wolves  sitting  on  the  carcass  of  a 
buffalo,  at  one  time  promised  success- 
fully to  work  up  a  vein  peculiarly  Ameri- 
can in  its  humour,  and  which  was  carried 
to  a  higher  degree  of  excellence  by  W.  H. 
Beard  and  F.  S.  Church.  Beard  has  been 
called  our  American  ^Esop,  and  with  some 
right,  as  he  made  a  specialty  of  expos- 
ing the  failings  and  foibles  of  our  sinful 
humanity  by  the  medium  of  animal  genre. 
Monkeys,  bears,  goats,  owls,  and  rabbits  are 
in  turn  impressed  into  the  benevolent  ser- 
vice of  taking  us  off.  Church  is  a  much 
more  refined  draughtsman,  he  excels  in 
tigers  and  bears  in  all  their  varied  mo- 
tions and  habits,  often  suggestive  of  the 
action  and  expression  of  human  beings. 

George  Inness  has  painted  some  excel- 
lent cows,  and  Ryder  has  shown  in  his 
horses  more  draughtsmanship  than  he 
ordinarily  seems  capable  of.  Shurtleff 


242       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

entertained  in  his  earlier  career  a  pleas- 
ant fancy  for  catamounts  and  deer,  and 
Marcus  Waterman  has  portrayed  the  ele- 
phant with  true  artistic  temperament. 
H.  R.  Poore,  of  Philadelphia,  devotes 
himself  to  animal  painting  with  a  hearty 
love,  a  vigorous  style,  and  fine  feeling  for 
colour,  space,  and  composition. 

J.  A.  S.  Monks,  of  Winthrop,  Mass., 
has  devoted  a  lifetime  to  the  study  of 
sheep,  and  depicts  them  with  sympathy 
and  truthfulness.  He  does  not  merely 
give  us  picturesque  views  of  a  group  of 
sheep,  but  tries  to  solve  the  real  character, 
the  soul  of  these  animals. 

The  man  to  whom  the  first  place  among 
American  animal  painters  should  be  unan- 
imously conceded  is  Horatio  Walker 
(1858-  ),  born  in  Canada.  Horatio 
Walker  is  an  artist  who  struggles  for 
something,  who  nourishes  an  ardent  de- 
sire to  realise  great  art.  He  has  the  rare 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  245 

gift  of  sifting  his  subjects  from  unneces- 
sary details,  of  painting  only  the  essen- 
tials, and  thus  combining  realism  and 
classicism  to  a  decorative  as  well  as 
suggestive  art  which  satisfies  the  most 
modern  taste.  Pictures  like  "  The  Har- 
rower,"  "Tree  Fellers,"  "Hauling  the 
Log,"  "  A  Spring  Morning,"  can  challenge 
competition  with  any  modern  European 
cattle  and  landscape  paintings.  Their 
raffine  simplicity  and  classic  calmness 
compare  favourably  with  the  best  of 
Dewing's  and  Tryon's  art,  and  the  colour, 
the  appreciation  of  light,  and  the  ripe- 
ness and  harmony  and  tone  which  char- 
acterise them  show  Walker  to  be  a 
master  of  the  first  rank.  Amusing  and 
interesting  is  the  conception  Walker 
entertains  of  cattle  and  household  ani- 
mals. He  is  on  very  intimate  terms 
with  them.  He  knows  their  ways  of 
life,  and  feels  with  them  their  joys  and 


246        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

troubles  of  existence.  He  gives  to  the 
brutes  he  paints  life  and  soul.  His  ani- 
mals seem  to  know  something  of  Goethe's 
"  Weltschmerz."  His  oxen,  with  a  few  ex- 
ceptions, when  they  simply  have  the  grand 
movements  of  nature,  are  represented  as 
"beasts  of  toil;"  his  cows  seem  to  be 
resigned  to  a  fate  of  drudgery ;  his  sheep, 
huddled  together  in  the  pale  morning 
light,  some  of  which  show  traits  of 
Schenck's  and  Mauve's  breeds,  look  as 
forlorn  and  ascetic  as  the  almshouse 
inmates  who  were  lost  in  the  forest  in 
Maeterlinck's  play  "  Les  Aveugles."  Also 
over  his  landscapes,  those  forest  clearings 
with  a  few  yellow  leaves  shivering  on 
barren  branches,  hovers  an  atmosphere 
of  loneliness  and  melancholia,  —  relieved 
here  and  there  in  the  background  by 
the  vague  indication  of  spring,  —  that 
only  a  country  whose  soil  is  desolate  and 
barren  and  snowbound  one-half  of  the 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  247 

year  can  exhale.  I  have  spent  one  winter 
in  Canada,  and  some  of  its  sad,  silent  win- 
ter scenes  have  made  a  deep,  most  vivid 
impression  upon  my  mind.  Up  there 
the  farmers  have  something  of  Millet's 
"sublime  murkiness  and  original  pent 
fury,"  and  looking  at  Walker's  pictures 
I  involuntarily  asked  myself,  "  How  many 
human  lives  had  to  be  sacrificed  to  con- 
quer that  Canadian  desolation  for  the 
usances  of  civilisation  ?  "  A  picture  that 
sets  one  thinking  is  generally  a  good  one. 

The  pigs  are  the  only  ones  of  Walker's 
animals  that  know  how  to  take  life ;  they 
lie  complacently  in  their  sties,  in  the  midst 
of  their  rich  milieu  of  manure,  rottening 
straw,  and  mire,  and  in  colour,  conception, 
and  technical  handling  are  almost  without 
exception  masterpieces.  Four  of  his  most 
representative  pictures  are  owned  by 
G.  A.  Hearn,  New  York. 

Flowers  are  one  of  the  favourite  sub- 


248        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

jects  of  women  painters.  It  is  natural 
that  their  charm  should  appeal  more  read- 
ily to  the  emotional  female  nature  than  to 
the  more  austere  and  scientific  intellec- 
tuality of  man.  Two  or  three  dozens 
of  women  painters  who  paint  flowers 
tolerably  well  could  be  easily  enume- 
rated. The  first  flower  painter  of  supe- 
rior ability  was  Miss  Rollins,  whose  work 
about  1879  recalled  the  rich  massive 
colouring  of  Van  Huysum.  She  com- 
posed with  great  taste  and  laid  on  her 
colours  with  superb  effect.  Other  effect- 
ive fruit  and  flower  painters  of  her  time 
were  George  R.  Hale  and  M.  J.  Heade, 
who  was  fond  of  depicting  the  sumptuous- 
ness  of  tropical  vegetation.  During  the 
last  two  decades  Way,  of  Baltimore,  the 
late  G.  C.  Lambdin,  of  Philadelphia,  who 
took  a  deep  interest  in  the  cultivation  of 
roses,  and  Miss  Green,  of  Boston,  who 
enjoys  the  reputation  of  painting  "the 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  249 

soul  of  flowers,"  were  successful  in  gain- 
ing public  favour.  In  our  time  Mrs.  E. 
M.  Scott,  who  renders  white  roses  with  a 
kind  of  unaffected  wholeness  of  nature, 
yet  with  a  delicate  beauty  and  poetical 
significance  of  their  own,  and  Abbott 
Graves,  who  paints  elaborate  composi- 
tions in  the  French  Salon  style,  endeav- 
ouring to  lend  his  flower  masses  a  raison 
d'etre  by  introducing  a  wheelbarrow  or 
the  bow  of  a  boat,  on  which  they  rest,  are 
noteworthy  exponents  of  this  delicate  art. 
Yet  the  pictures  that  linger  most  pleas- 
antly in  my  memory  are  Alden  Weir's 
and  La  Farge's  flower  pieces  and  "The 
Rose  Garden  "  by  Mrs.  Dewing  (Mariah 
Oakey). 

Still  life  has  rarely  been  made  a  spe- 
cialty, and  rarely  been  handled  by  ar- 
tists of  superior  skill.  Hill  in  the  sixties 
painted  the  plumage  of  birds  with  a  lov- 
ing spirit  and  astonishing  accuracy.  Emil 


250       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Carlsen  is  now  about  the  only  one  I  could 
mention.  His  arrangements  of  fowl,  vege- 
tables, and  ceramic  and  brass  ware  are 
exceedingly  clever  but  strangely  cold  and 
unsympathetic  in  colour.  One  wonders 
involuntarily  if  that  man  has  any  fire 
,in  his  soul  to  warm  his  mentality. 
W.  M.  Chase  still  can  boast  of  paint- 
ing the  finest  examples  of  still  life  in 
this  country. 

Battle  painting  had  but  very  few  expo- 
nents. It  was  in  the  sixties  that  the  his- 
toric art  of  Weir  and  Leutze  gave  way  to 
battle  painting  in  the  modern  sense.  The 
Secession  War  had  given  rise  to  some 
important  work  like  Winslow  Homer's 
"Prisoners  to  the  Front,"  and  Hunt's 
"Bugle  Call"  (1864),  and  Julian  Scott 
had  a  moderate  success  with  his  "  In 
the  Cornfields  of  Antietam."  Soon  after 
Rothermel,  a  German  artist,  painted  gi- 
gantic canvases  like  the  "  Battle  of  Get- 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  251 

tysburg,"  which  was  one  of  the  attractions 
of  the  Centennial  Fair. 

Gilbert  Gaul  (1855-  ),  a  restless,  rov- 
ing spirit,  who  began  his  career  with 
painting  pretty  women  and  genre  scenes, 
and  now  illustrates  his  various  experi- 
ences in  foreign  lands,  owes  his  reputa- 
tion largely  to  his  spirited  interpretation 
of  military  scenes.  His  "  Charging  the 
Battery"  and  "Wounded  to  the  Rear" 
give  him  a  leading  rank  among  battle 
painters.  He  represented  action  at  times, 
principally  in  his  sketches,  with  a  dash 
and  energy  that  was  even  superior  to 
De  Neuville. 

More  polished  and  just  as  truthful 
was  W.  Trego  (1859-  ),  who  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighties  painted  a  number 
of  pictures  like  "  The  Battery  en  Route," 
"  The  March  to  Valley  Forge,"  "  Battery 
Halt,"  which  at  once  secured  him  a  prom- 
inent position  in  our  art.  He  was  an 


250       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Carlsen  is  now  about  the  only  one  I  could 
mention.  His  arrangements  of  fowl,  vege- 
tables, and  ceramic  and  brass  ware  are 
exceedingly  clever  but  strangely  cold  and 
unsympathetic  in  colour.  One  wonders 
involuntarily  if  that  man  has  any  fire 
,in  his  soul  to  warm  his  mentality. 
W.  M.  Chase  still  can  boast  of  paint- 
ing the  finest  examples  of  still  life  in 
this  country. 

Battle  painting  had  but  very  few  expo- 
nents. It  was  in  the  sixties  that  the  his- 
toric art  of  Weir  and  Leutze  gave  way  to 
battle  painting  in  the  modern  sense.  The 
Secession  War  had  given  rise  to  some 
important  work  like  Winslow  Homer's 
"Prisoners  to  the  Front,"  and  Hunt's 
"Bugle  Call"  (1864),  and  Julian  Scott 
had  a  moderate  success  with  his  "  In 
the  Cornfields  of  Antietam."  Soon  after 
Rothermel,  a  German  artist,  painted  gi- 
gantic canvases  like  the  "  Battle  of  Get- 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  251 

tysburg,"  which  was  one  of  the  attractions 
of  the  Centennial  Fair. 

Gilbert  Gaul  (1855-  ),  a  restless,  rov- 
ing spirit,  who  began  his  career  with 
painting  pretty  women  and  genre  scenes, 
and  now  illustrates  his  various  experi- 
ences in  foreign  lands,  owes  his  reputa- 
tion largely  to  his  spirited  interpretation 
of  military  scenes.  His  "  Charging  the 
Battery"  and  "Wounded  to  the  Rear" 
give  him  a  leading  rank  among  battle 
painters.  He  represented  action  at  times, 
principally  in  his  sketches,  with  a  dash 
and  energy  that  was  even  superior  to 
De  Neuville. 

More  polished  and  just  as  truthful 
was  W.  Trego  (1859-  ),  who  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighties  painted  a  number 
of  pictures  like  "  The  Battery  en  Route," 
"  The  March  to  Valley  Forge,"  "  Battery 
Halt,"  which  at  once  secured  him  a  prom- 
inent position  in  our  art.  He  was  an 


252        A    HISTORY    OF    AMERICAN    ART. 

earnest  student,  accurate  in  characterisa- 
tion, life-like  in  representation,  and  pleas- 
ing in  his  gray  colouring.  Still  conscious 
of  technical  weaknesses,  he  went  to  Paris, 
and  soon  after  sent  pictures  like  "  The 
Colour-Guard,"  and  "  Running  the  Gaunt- 
let," to  the  Philadelphia  exhibitions,  which 
looked  like  imitations  of  Detaille  and 
Morot.  He  had  become  a  more  skilful 
painter,  but  less  of  an  American  and  less 
of  an  artist,  for  he  had  apparently  sacri- 
ficed his  own  originality  of  idea  to  the 
"glorification  of  war"  as  delineated  by 
French  battle  painters,  and  with  which 
our  nation  can  have  but  little  sympathy. 
America  has  lost  him,  as  it  had  lost  so 
many  others  before. 

The  painting  of  street  scenes  is,  strange 
to  say,  one  of  the  oldest  branches  of  our 
art.  The  appreciation  of  common  sense 
and  the  love  for  reality,  which  were  always 
characteristics  of  the  American,  may  have 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  253 

something  to  do  with  it.  At  any  rate, 
pictures  bearing  the  title  "  Central  Square, 
Philadelphia,"  and  "  Election  at  the  State 
House,"  were  already  painted  by  J.  L. 
Krimmel,  a  German  artist,  who  came  to 
this  country  in  1810  and  was  accidentally 
drowned  near  Germantown,  Pa.,  in  1821. 
Even  the  town  of  Brooklyn  had  its 
painter  at  that  early  period.  Francis 
Guy  devoted  himself  with  great  financial 
success  to  street  scenes.  His  "  Brooklyn 
Snow  Scene"  (1817)  is  regarded  as  his 
chief  work.  After  these  efforts,  however, 
little  seems  to  have  been  done  before 
Eliza  Greatorex  made  her  etchings  and 
pen-and-ink  drawings,  and  Louis  C.  Tif- 
fany, who  in  Europe  had  clung  pretty 
closely  to  cathedrals,  tried  to  discover 
picturesque  bits  about  New  York  City. 
One  of  his  most  successful  pictures  repre- 
sented an  up-town  green-grocer's  shanty 
and  garden.  Also  the  picturesqueness  of 


254       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

the  New  York  Harbour  attracted  him,  as 
it  did  Samuel  Colman. 

Blum  and  Lungren  soon  followed,  and 
did  much  creditable  work  particularly  in 
illustration.  More  recently  the  etcher, 
Mielatz,  undertook  a  labour  of  love  in 
his  "  Picturesque  Bits  of  New  York,"  and 
Pennell  made  some  explorations  in  old 
Philadelphia.  Chase  painted  his  Central 
Park  scenes,  that  made  him  more  popular 
with  the  public  than  anything  else  he  has 
done.  But  it  was  left  to  Childe  Hassam 
to  become  our  street  scene  painter  par 
excellence,  the  depicter  of  the  ever-chang- 
ing effects  of  restless  city  life.  He  has  a 
wonderful  eye  for  atmospheric  effects,  for 
the  tumult  in  thoroughfares  and  city 
parks,  and  for  the  endless  colour  sug- 
gestions that  are  revealed  by  a  crowd  of 
pedestrians,  vehicles,  or  by  any  combina- 
tion of  the  manifold  paraphernalia  of  a 
metropolis. 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  257 

The  simplest  scene  suggests  a  picture 
full  of  interest  and  sentiment  to  him,  and 
he  is  usually  successful  in  reporting  these 
suggestions.  His  strength  lies  in  paint- 
ing a  man,  for  instance,  with  a  few  dots  of 
colour,  and  yet  expressing  perfectly  the 
man's  movement,  whether  he  be  running 
or  walking  slowly. 

With  his  atmospheric  effects  he  some- 
times plays  like  a  wizard,  the  expression 
of  his  own  personality  often  being  entirely 
lost  in  it. 

A  most  serious  rival  Childe  Hassam 
has  in  Ch.  Austin  Needham,  the  painter  of 
the  "  Mott  Haven  Canal."  I  almost  pre- 
fer Needham's  street  scenes.  They  are 
so  honest,  serious,  and  simple,  and  imbued 
with  our  atmosphere,  while  the  principal 
merit  of  Hassam's  work  is  that  "  the  light 
of  France  is  still  upon  them." 

Another  street  scene  painter  is  R. 
Henri,  whose  aim  is  rather  to  seize  the 


258       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

mystery,  the  passion,  the  despair,  as  well 
as  the  gaiety  of  a  modern  metropolis, 
than  to  describe  its  mere  topographical 
features. 

Among  the  young  men  W.  H.  Law- 
rence should  be  mentioned,  who  is  a 
careful  observer  of  life  en  masse,  and 
apparently  possesses  enough  technical 
faculties  to  give  us  realistic  and  con- 
scientious work  in  that  direction. 

Everett  Shinn,  the  latest  addition  in 
this  field,  —  which  calls  for  more  poetic 
and  imaginative  treatment  by  far  both  in 
literature  and  art  than  it  has  hitherto 
received,  —  will  for  various  reasons  be 
mentioned  at  length  in  another  chapter. 

If  one  desires  to  know  Japan  as  it 
looks  to  Western  eyes,  one  will  find  that 
C.  D.  Weldon  has  done  the  most  realis- 
tic, Blum  the  most  poetical,  and  Parsons 
the  most  picturesque  work.  La  Farge, 
too  strong  an  individuality  to  be  a  faith- 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  259 

ful  reproducer  of  scenery,  has  manipulated 
the  Japanese  landscape  to  suit  his  own 
tastes,  and  given  us  a  few  delicious  remi- 
niscences of  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun. 
"  The  red  Indians  are  undoubtedly  pic- 
torial and  perhaps  semi-picturesque,"  was 
Walter  Shirlaw's  verdict  about  the  artis- 
tic possibilities  of  the  American  Indians. 
This  was  after  a  Western  trip  which  he 
and  Gilbert  Gaul,  the  battle  painter,  had 
made  in  the  interest  of  the  Interior  De- 
partment. The  verdict,  overexacting  as 
it  may  seem,  comes  nearer  to  the  truth 
than  one  may  imagine  at  the  first  glance. 
These  Western  tribes,  with  their  character- 
istic make-up,  their  wild  way  of  living,  and 
their  peculiar  ceremonious  rites,  contain 
for  the  artist  all  the  elements  of  the  picto- 
rial, but  even  to  the  layman  they  can 
hardly  claim  to  be  as  picturesque  as,  for 
instance,  the  Arabian  horseman  whom 
Schreyer  paints. 


260       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

The  majority  of  our  American  artists 
seem  to  share  Walter  Shirlaw's  opinion — 
if  they  have  given  the  subject  any  thought 
at  all  —  as  the  number  of  those  who  have 
made  the  Indians  their  special  genre  is 
very  limited.  There  are  W.  Gary,  H.  F. 
Farny  of  Cincinnati,  E.  W.  Deming,  Ru- 
dolf Cronau,  Gaspard  Latoix  and  De  Cost 
Smith,  a  most  thorough  student  of  Indian 
customs  and  manners.  He  has  lived  for 
a  long  time  among  the  Sioux,  the  Crows, 
the  Bannocks,  the  Chippeways,  Omahas, 
Winnebagoes,  and  studied  their  folk-lore 
and  the  various  dialects  of  their  languages. 
Among  those  who  have  tackled  the  sub- 
ject occasionally  are  Dodge  and  Mosler. 
E.  W.  D.  Hamilton,  of  Boston,  is  the  only 
one  who  has  tried  to  introduce  the  subject 
into  pictures  of  ambitious  size  and  into 
fresco  painting. 

He  once  set  himself  the  ambitious  task 
of  depicting  on  a  huge  canvas  the  rela- 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  26 1 

tion  of  the  red  Indians  to  modern  civili- 
sation. The  picture  told  its  own  story. 
A  number  of  Indian  warriors  on  horse- 
back, accompanied  by  a  squaw  carrying  a 
child  on  her  back,  and  an  old  chief  borne 
on  a  litter,  represent  the  doomed  race, 
wandering  through  a  barren,  mountain- 
ous region,  in  search  of  a  new  hunting- 
ground.  They  are  stopped  by  the  appari- 
tion of  an  old  Indian  and  a  boy;  the 
latter  makes  a  gesture  as  if  forbidding 
them  to  advance  farther,  while  the  old 
man  points  to  an  Indian  burial-place  that 
is  pitched  up  in  the  cool  shade  of  a  rock, 
the  only  dark  spot  in  the  picture.  The 
background  is  a  powerful  impressionistic 
landscape  —  one  of  the  mountain  ridges 
near  Gay  Head — in  the  strongest  sunlight, 
most  dazzling  in  the  direction  in  which  the 
Indians  are  forbidden  to  proceed. 

The  most  poetical  and  the  most  suc- 
cessful renderings  artistically  of  the  red 


262        A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Indians  were  furnished  by  George  de  For- 
rest Brush  (1855-  ),  born  at  Shelbyville, 
Tenn. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  career  Brush 
gave  us  poetical  renderings  of  the  Ameri- 
can Indian.  His  Indian  hunter  (owned 
by  C.  D.  Miller,  Jersey  City),  with  his 
spoils  on  his  back,  squatting  at  the  edge 
of  a  lake  and  reaching  forth  to  pluck  a 
water  lily,  and  the  Indian  canoeist  resting 
on  his  paddle  for  a  moment  to  gaze  after 
the  flight  of  a  wild  swan  over  the  lone- 
some lake,  belong  to  the  best  figure  paint- 
ings and  story-telling  pictures  of  American 
art,  and  constitute  undoubtedly  the  most 
artistic  representations  the  red  Indian 
has  hitherto  found.  Other  noteworthy 
pictures  of  his  are  "  The  King  and  the 
Sculptor  "  and  "  Killing  the  Moose." 

A  few  years  ago,  feeling  probably  that 
the  red  Indians  were  too  remote  from  the 
every-day  interest  of  our  people,  and  possi- 


BRUSH.  —  THE  INDIAN  AND  THE  LILY. 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  265 

bly  also  from  the  higher  aims  of  art,  he 
took  up  subjects  comprehensible  to  every- 
one, namely,  maternity  and  childhood,  and, 
with  an  exquisite  quaintness  of  line  and 
colour,  began,  like  Abbott  Thayer,  to 
idealise  his  wife  and  children  for  a  serial 
of  modern  Madonnas. 

The  first  time  I  met  De  Forrest  Brush 
was  in  a  Forty-ninth  Street  flat  several 
years  ago.  He  was  painting  at  one  of 
the  Mother  and  Child  pictures,  which  was 
sold  in  Boston  at  —  for  an  American  pic- 
ture —  quite  a  fabulous  sum.  The  humble 
parlour  which  served  as  studio,  a  glimpse 
through  a  half-open  door  into  the  inti- 
macies of  his  private  life,  two  little  chil- 
dren approaching  shyly  in  the  corridor, 
and  the  unfinished  portrait  of  his  wife  on 
an  easel,  told  me  at  once  that  these  rep- 
resentations of  motherhood  were  cre- 
ated directly  out  of  an  individual  home 
atmosphere. 


266       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

They  lack,  however,  the  freedom  and 
originality,  the  bold  and  personal  style  of 
Thayer's  work.  They  are  constructed  too 
closely  after  the  pattern  of  mediaeval  reli- 
gious work  to  give  absolute  pure  en- 
joyment. His  pictures  look  somewhat 
laboured,  not  as  far  as  their  technique 
is  concerned,  but  in  that  which  they 
try  to  express,  the  feeling  of  "domestic 
piety." 

Brush  represents  the  Tolstoian  element 
in  our  art.  He  wants  his  art  to  be  didac- 
tic, popular,  of  elevating  influence  upon 
the  masses.  The  painter  is  ever  ready 
to  expound  his  theories  with  a  sort  of 
boyish  vivacity.  Many  men,  who  made 
their  name  in  history  and  art,  had  such  a 
boyish  countenance  and  youthfulness  of 
spirit. 

One  day  I  argued  in  his  studio :  "  But 
I  do  not  see  how  you  do  justice  to  your- 
self by  selling  your  pictures  to  some  rich 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  267 

man,  who  shuts  them  up,  so  that  few  have 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  them ! " 

"  That's  why  I  am  tired  of  picture  paint- 
ing and  want  to  give  it  up ! "  he  ejaculated. 
"  This  may  be  my  last  picture  (pointing 
to  an  easel).  I  would  not  go  around  the 
corner  for  all  the  honour  of  the  Salon.  I 
shall  -never  be  satisfied  until  I  am  admired 
by  the  people  of  Cherry  Hill." 

"  I  do  not  see  how  they  will  under- 
stand your  work  except  you  lower  your 
standard." 

"  The  worse  for  me  I  You  know  I  lived 
among  the  Indians ;  they  were  not  inter- 
ested in  how  I  painted  them,  yet  they 
were  highly  interested  in  decorating  their 
own  shields  with  simple  ornaments.  It  is 
the  same  way  with  the  people  of  Cherry 
Hill.  They  want  something  which  they 
can  appreciate  and  afford  to  buy." 

"  Do  you  think  you  can  reach  them  by 
some  reproductive  art  ?  "  I  inquired. 


268       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

"  I  thought  of  taking  up  lithography." 

"  Yes,  any  amount  of  good  could  be 
done,  not  by  the  silly  stereotype  pictures 
that  Prang  publishes,  but  by  real  artistic 
work  distributed  in  the  same  extensive 
manner.  Everywhere  you  can  run  across 
a  Prang  lithograph." 

"  Prang  did  for  money  what  I  may  do 
out  of  enthusiasm  and  love,"  said  Brush, 
heroically. 

"  Then  you  would  become  a  sort  of 
ideal  Prang?" 

We  smiled  at  the  idea,  and  yet  were 
both  convinced  that  an  ideal  Prang  could 
become  one  of  the  leading  factors  in  the 
art  education  of  our  American  people. 

However,  he  is  still  painting  Madonnas, 
surrounded  with  a  larger  number  of  chil- 
dren every  year,  and  each  garbed  in  a 
different  shade  of  colour. 

Brush  standing  now  at  the  head  of 
"modern  scholarly  art"  in  America,  al- 


BRUSH.  —  MOTHER  AND  CHILD. 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  271 

ways  remained  a  true  Gerome  pupil. 
His  drawing  is  strong  and  distingue,  and 
his  figures  are  interpreted  with  truth  of 
expression.  In  his  Indian  pictures  his 
colour  was  at  times  very  beautiful  and 
powerful.  Of  late  he  has  striven  more 
for  strong  and  effective  contrasts,  his 
colour  has  grown  richer,  but  his  pictures 
no  longer  possess  the  harmony  and  sim- 
plicity of  his  former  method.  He  has  not 
yet  solved  the  mysterious  affinity  between 
certain  colours  and  certain  emotions. 

An  artist  to  whom  America  owes  a  debt 
of  gratitude  it  can  never  pay  is  Abbott 
H.  Thayer  (1849-  ),  born  at  Boston. 
One  might  concede,  at  the  very  start, 
that  his  drawing  is  at  times  very  faulty, 
his  colour  uncertain,  and  his  flesh  tones 
impure,  although  they  generally  harmo- 
nise with  the  drapery.  Yet  the  general 
effect,  the  final  result,  is  always  dignified. 
Despite  his  technical  shortcomings,  he 


272        A    HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

possesses  style^  which  is  given  to  but  few 
men. 

His  "  Corps  Aile,"  the  white-winged 
body  of  a  girl  against  a  blue  background, 
has  already  that  naivete  and  at  the  same 
time  that  intensity  of  expression  which 
recalls  the  early  Florentine  art.  Every- 
thing is  so  fresh,  so  unaffected,  so  pecul- 
iarly his  own,  that  we  can  well  afford  to  lose 
a  little  technical  brilliancy  as  long  as  his 
pictures  rather  gain  than  lose  by  his  slow 
and  frugal  methods.  His  healthy  manly 
vigour  and  his  naive  religious  feeling,  a 
sort  of  modern  pantheism  and  childlike 
faith  in  humanity,  impresses  us  deeply  in 
these  days  when  men  are  so  self-conscious. 
He  feels  things  with  primitive  simplicity, 
joy,  and  frankness,  and  this  feeling  is  not 
affected  but  natural  with  him.  The  idyllic 
classic  note  was  in  the  man,  and  would 
have  found  its  way  into  his  work,  no 
matter  if  he  had  been  a  painter,  poet, 


THAYER.  —  THE  VIRGIN. 


THE    NEW    SCHOOL.  275 

sculptor,  or  musician.  His  three  master- 
pieces are  "  The  Virgin  "  (at  the  House  of 
Freer),  "  The  Virgin  Enthroned  "  (owned 
by  J.  M.  Sears,  Boston),  and  the  "  Caritas  " 
(at  the  Boston  Art  Museum).  The  first 
picture  represents  a  young  woman  in 
flowing  drapery,  stepping  briskly  forward, 
leading  a  little  boy  and  a  still  smaller  girl 
by  the  hand.  The  clouds  are  shaped  like 
wings,  and  in  the  atmosphere  is  the  sug- 
gestion of  spring.  "  The  brooding  spirit 
of  life  itself  is  there,  bringing  to  one's 
thoughts  a  swarm  of  birds  and  flowers 
and  insects."  The  second  picture  shows 
the  same  girl  with  a  maturer  look,  Ma- 
donna-like enthroned,  with  the  two  chil- 
dren kneeling  in  adoration  at  her  side. 
The  last  picture  shows  the  same  model 
(his  daughter)  standing  in  the  centre  with 
uplifted  hands,  and  one  child  on  each  side 
leaning  against  her.  It  is  more  decora- 
tive than  the  other  two  without  losing 


276       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

the  spiritual  motive,  with  which  all  his 
sensuous  forms  are  saturated. 

Abbott  Thayer's  work  occupied  indeed  a 
strange  position  in  the  world's  art.  It  is  a 
modern  combination  of  the  inwardness  of 
the  Middle  Ages  and  the  vagueness  of  the 
Orient.  His  pictures  take  the  place  of 
the  old  religious  symbols,  in  which  he 
himself  very  likely  no  longer  believes, 
and  yet  they  are  imbued  with  so  devout 
a  spirit  that  they  could  be  used  as  shrines 
for  worship  in  modern  homesteads,  re- 
minding us  of  all  that  is  good  and  noble 
in  the  human  race. 

H.  O.  Walker  has  lately  strayed  into 
the  same  direction,  after  enjoying  the 
reputation  of  being  one  of  the  few  suc- 
cessful painters  of  the  nude  figures  in 
Boston.  He  copied  his  models  with  every 
physical  shortcoming;  only  the  truthful- 
ness of  his  flesh  tints  redeemed  them 
from  vulgarity.  His  draped  figures,  al- 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  277 

though  marked  by  better  drawing,  more 
solid  construction,  and  a  delightful  note  of 
tenderness  and  affection,  lack  the  quality 
which  would  make  them  look  distin- 
guished, which  the  hermit  of  Scarboro, 
(N.  Y.)  possesses  in  such  a  rare  degree. 

F.  H.  Tompkins,  one  of  our  best  figure 
painters  and  a  pupil  of  Lofftz,  shows  all 
the  characteristics  of  that  technical  school, 
which  led  German  art  to  independent 
mastership.  Correct  judgment,  simplic- 
ity of  composition,  sureness  of  lines,  for- 
cible modelling,  firm,  unobtrusive  brush 
work,  natural  though  rather  sombre  and 
at  times  muddy  colouring,  and  a  clever 
handling  of  conflicting  lights  are  also 
Tompkins's  technical  accomplishments, 
but  his  principal  endeavour  is,  after  all, 
to  express  some  feeling,  a  vibration  of  the 
soul  individual  to  himself. 

His  first  important  picture,  "  The  Wor- 
shippers," showed  this  tendency.  It  rep- 


278       A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

resented  a  German  girl  in  plain  black, 
standing  tall  and  erect  in  a  serious  and 
devout  attitude  in  a  church  pew,  beside 
an  old  woman  attired  in  a  veil  and  check- 
ered shawl. 

Lbfftz,  who  is  rather  chary  of  praise, 
remarked  about  this  picture :  "  Gabriel 
Max  could  not  paint  such  a  hand,  but  he 
could  paint  a  better  picture." 

More  powerful  by  far  he  appears  in 
expressing  the  sentiment  of  motherly 
love.  There  are  more  than  half  a 
dozen  canvases  treating  this  subject,  two 
of  which  are  particularly  characteristic. 
The  first,  at  the  Art  Club,  Boston,  depicts 
a  rustic  mother  betraying  in  her  whole 
figure  and  the  joyful  expression  of  her  face 
that  all  her  thoughts  are  with  her  child. 
The  second  type  of  motherhood  is  repre- 
sented by  a  delicate  and  refined  looking 
lady,  with  reminiscences  of  old  New  Eng- 
land in  her  dress,  sitting  listlessly  at  the 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  279 

cradle    from    which   her   thoughts   have 
wandered  far  away. 

Two  other  pictures  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary significance  are  his  "  Good  Friday  " 
and  "Afterglow."  The  latter  represents 
a  twilight  scene.  A  road,  lined  on  the 
right  with  cottages,  loses  itself  in  slight 
undulations  in  the  distance,  where  a  mass 
of  houses,  with  numerous  lights,  suggests 
the  never-ceasing  tumult  of  city  life.  The 
sun  has  set  in  vehement  red  and  orange 
colours,  under  a  greenish  sky,  with  dark 
bluish-gray  clouds.  In  the  foreground  a 
priest  with  choir-boys,  carrying  lighted 
lanterns  and  crucifix,  is  returning  from  a 
funeral.  The  patch  of  scant  vegetation, 
with  a  pool  of  water  to  the  left,  the  barren 
road,  the  dark  cottages  with  an  occasional 
flickering  light  in  the  dim  windows  or 
streaming  through  a  half-opened  door, 
appear  like  the  vague  desire  of  sad,  strug- 
gling humanity  for  something  brighter 


280       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

beyond  the  grave.  And  the  same  feeling 
is  unconsciously  worked  out  in  the  colour- 
ing, the  monotony  of  the  bluish-gray  tone 
of  the  picture  finding  relief  in  the  fierce 
colours  of  the  sunset.  It  is  a  picture  of 
endless  suggestions  that  appeal  to  the 
poetic  mind,  before  which  we  can  dream 
and  experience  a  desire  to  fold  our  hands, 
however  unbelieving  we  may  be. 

F.  »W.  Freer  (1849-  ),  a  resident  of 
Chicago,  is  another  excellent  figure 
painter,  a  man  of  an  energetic  nature 
and  a  fresh  spirited  style.  He  has  de- 
voted himself  chiefly  to  simple  and  sin- 
cere transcriptions  of  the  fair  sex,  whose 
grace  and  beauty  he  depicts  in  modern 
dress,  selecting  a  happy  medium  between 
portraiture  and  genre  for  his  expression. 

Other  notable  painters  of  the  human 
figure  are  Wilton  Lockwood,  J.  H.  Ca- 
liga,  Benjamin  Eggleston,  Louis  Loeb,  and 
Sargent  Kendall.  The  latter's  "  The  End 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  281 

of  the  Day,"  a  mother  and  child  subject,  is 
a  very  strong  picture.  If  he  succeeded  in 
making  a  few  more  as  meritorious  as  this 
one,  he  would  deserve  to  be  classed  among 
our  foremost  painters. 

The  greatest  genre  painter  of  the  new 
school  was  Th.  F.  Hovenden  (1840-95), 
born  in  Ireland.  His  "  John  Brown  Being 
Led  to  Execution,"  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum,  is  one  of  the  most  popular  pic- 
tures America  has  hitherto  produced. 
Prince  Kropotkin  pronounced  it  the 
only  picture  of  lasting  value  he  had 
seen  in  that  gallery.  His  judgment,  how- 
ever, was  biassed  by  his  theory  that  art 
should  exercise  a  distinct  moral  and  edu- 
cational influence.  It  certainly  should, 
but  not  merely  by  the  choice  of  sub- 
ject, but  rather  unconsciously,  by  force 
of  its  beauty.  Hovenden's  picture  has 
undoubtedly  the  quality  of  attracting  and 
interesting  the  large  multitude.  The  pa- 


282       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

thetic  figure  of  John  Brown,  followed  by 
the  executors  of  the  law  and  surrounded 
by  soldiers,  who  hold  back  the  coloured 
people  pressing  forward  to  show  the  mar- 
tyr a  last  sign  of  gratitude,  is  told  with  a 
touching  familiarity  and  simple  and  accu- 
rate drawing.  He  is  deficient  in  painter 
qualities,  but  one  finds  in  his  pictures 
knowledge  of  form,  power  of  character- 
isation, and  correct  relation  of  the  figures 
to  the  background.  The  following  are  a 
few  examples  that  have  found  enthusiastic 
appreciation :  "  Elaine,"  "  In  the  Hands 
of  the  Enemy  "  (almost  as  popular  as  the 
John  Brown),  "  Brittany  Image  Seller," 
"  Chloe  and  Sam,"  and  "  Jerusalem  the 
Golden,"  a  lamplight  interior  painted  in 
the  colours  of  the  impressionist  school, 
with  a  young  woman  and  a  man  seated  in 
a  listless  attitude,  listening  to  a  girl  play- 
ing the  piano  in  the  background. 

Louis  Moeller  has  gained  a  reputation 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  283 

for  his  genre  scenes,  in  which  he  portrays 
unique  types  of  old  men  with  a  decided 
ability  for  characterisation,  and  dashy  but 
rather  obtrusive  brush  work. 

The  only  representative  of  the  school, 
the  art  of  which  is  summed  up  in  a  panel 
of  the  size  of  a  hand,  is  J.  M.  Gaugengigl, 
of  Boston,  the  Meissonnier  of  America. 
It  is  quite  a  number  of  years  ago  that 
he  painted  the  fresco  of  little  fauns  over 
the  stage  of  the  Boston  Museum  for  one 
hundred  dollars.  His  pictures,  like  "  The 
First  Hearing  "  and  "  The  Duel,"  sell  for 
thousands  of  dollars  now.  Nobody  can 
compare  with  him  in  painting  details ;  as 
a  painter  of  buttons,  shoe  buckles,  every 
thread  stealing  out  of  a  buttonhole,  every 
wrinkle  in  a  satin  breeches,  he  reigns  su- 
preme. A  remark  which  one  of  the  artists 
made  before  Gaugengigl's  picture  deserves 
to  be  repeated :  "  Take  a  man,  dress  him 
up  in  a  revolutionary  costume,  place  him 


284       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

among  old-fashioned  furniture,  and  look 
at  him  through  a  diminishing  glass,  and 
you  have  Gaugengigl's  pictures." 

Gaugengigl  is  equal  to  Meissonnier  in 
skill  of  detail  and  colour,  although  he 
never  became  his  peer  in  representing 
action,  as  he  painted  mostly  interiors  with 
one  or  two  figures  and  rarely  attempted 
more  ambitious  compositions.  Two  ex- 
ceptions are  his  suicide,  a  man  lying  dead 
near  the  seashore,  or  his  cavalryman,  sud- 
denly shot  from  an  ambush  in  the  hills  (at 
the  Boston  Art  Museum). 

Two  painters  of  remarkable  versatility 
are  Edward  Simmons  and  Robert  Blum. 
Simmons  is  a  good  "  stock  "  painter.  He 
is  at  home  in  all  parts.  He  can  paint  a 
young  girl  putting  on  her  stocking  with 
touches  of  French  frivolity,  a  marine  with 
all  its  delicate  gradations  of  vibrant  air 
and  water,  and  a  decoration  with  touches 
of  the  sublime.  In  two  of  his  more  im- 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  285 

portant  pictures,  one  of  which  I  saw  at 
Philadelphia  and  the  other  ("The  Car- 
penter's Son  ")  in  the  Grand  Union  Hotel, 
N.  Y.,  he  would  have  climbed  the  very 
heights  of  pictorial  art,  if  a  tin  coffee-pot 
(that  could  have  aroused  the  envy  of 
Chase)  in  one,  and  the  wood  shavings  in 
the  other,  had  not  been  painted  in  such 
a  "devilish  clever"  manner  as  to  attract 
the  principal  attention. 

Robert  Blum,  whose  art  reminds 
Vance  Thompson  of  "a  portmanteau 
that  has  seen  many  countries  and  has 
been  labelled  accordingly,"  always  aspired 
to  the  exquisite  exotic  touch  of  Fortuny, 
but,  sad  to  state,  has  more  often  applied 
the  amiable  method  of  Rico.  His  work 
is  always  brilliant,  animated,  and  refined, 
his  Venetian  and  Japanese  pictures  fairly 
sparkle  with  crisp  and  delicate  effects. 

Portraits  are  painted  as  numerously  as 
ever,  but  the  large  majority  are  commer 


286       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

cial,  and  have  no  claim  to  art.  Our 
wealthy  classes  still  prefer  to  have  them- 
selves painted  by  foreign  portrait  painters, 
and,  as  long  as  they  engage  men  of  rare 
ability,  like  Carolus  Duran  and  Zorn,  with 
whom  our  artists  can  hardly  compete, 
little  fault  can  be  found,  but  when  it 
comes  to  mediocre  talents  like  Chartran 
and  Madrazo,  it  is  rather  deplorable. 
Some  of  our  native  artists,  like  Eakins, 
Chase,  Henri,  and  Dewing,  for  instance, 
should  be  able  to  satisfy  the  most  exact- 
ing demands  in  that  direction. 

Among  the  portraitists  who  are  special- 
ists three  stand  out  distinctly,  Vinton, 
Brandegee,  and  Cecilia  Beaux. 

F.  P.  Vinton,  of  Boston,  is  our  best  por- 
trait painter.  He  was  a  great  admirer  of 
Hunt,  and  his  works  show  some  of  the 
breadth  and  virility  of  his  great  prede- 
cessor. Vinton's  portraits  are  generally 
good  likenesses  painted  in  a  masculine 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  287 

style,  with  solidity,  depth  of  colour  and 
excellent  draughtsmanship,  but  with  a 
rather  prosaic  conception.  Yet,  however 
far  they  may  be  removed  from  spon- 
taneity and  brilliancy  of  execution,  he 
seldom  gives  us  a  picture  that  could  be 
called  insignificant.  It  seems  of  late  as  if 
Vinton  were  struggling  to  get  away  from 
his  darker  colouring,  and  reach  some 
higher  expression  of  truth.  His  work  at 
least  shows  a  steady  improvement.  At 
all  events,  he  is  more  competent  than 
most  American  artists  to  portray  the 
character  of  the  average  well-to-do  Ameri- 
can, with  his  manliness,  never-abating 
energy,  self-satisfaction,  and  democratic 
spirit.  His  portraits  of  women  are  nearly 
always  failures. 

Less  successful  in  securing  orders  is 
R.  L.  Brandegee,  now  living  in  Farm- 
ington,  Conn.  The  portraits  he  now 
and  then  exhibits,  strong  in  characterisa- 


288       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

tion,  impressive  in  their  colouring,  and 
executed  in  a  decisive  manner,  are  a  most 
convincing  evidence  of  his  power. 

Cecilia  Beaux  is  another  artist  who 
devotes  her  talent  entirely  to  portraiture, 
which  is  in  itself  a  decided  merit  in  this 
art  world  of  ours,  in  which  illustrations, 
teaching,  and  portrait  painting  are  gener- 
ally only  considered  means  to  keep  artists 
from  starvation.  Miss  Beaux's  individu- 
ality is  developed  in  two  characteristics : 
brilliancy  and  refinement.  They  are  com- 
bined in  such  an  exquisite,  vital  manner 
as  to  render  her  pictures  real  fragments 
of  beauty,  not  entirely  free,  however,  from 
superficiality,  and  a  certain  trickiness, 
which  generally  accompany  brilliancy. 
Each  portrait  contains  beautiful  touches 
which,  carried  only  a  little  bit  further, 
would  blossom  forth  into  delightful  man- 
nerisms, as,  for  instance,  the  blue-gray 
lines  which  she  uses  as  outlines  and  em- 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  289 

phasis  in  the  shadows.  Her  drawing  is 
often  uncertain,  and  would,  undoubtedly, 
improve  by  anatomical  studies  in  the  life 
class.  Trousers  generally  have  legs  in- 
side. Yet  her  portraits,  in  whatever  sur- 
rounding they  may  be,  are  always  sure  to 
attract  attention  by  their  agreeable  colour 
schemes,  simplicity  of  arrangement,  natu- 
ralness of  pose,  and  their  general  chic 
technique.  But  beneath  the  flamboyant 
surface  there  is  a  good  deal  of  drab,  a 
rigidity,  inherent  in  her  personality;  she 
has  not  yet  learned  to  animate  her  art 
with  emotional  and  intellectual  dashes 
that  flash  forth  from  the  storm  clouds 
of  genius. 

Bonnat,  for  instance,  is  just  the  oppo- 
site to  Miss  Beaux,  a  good  deal  of  drab 
on  the  surface,  but  flamboyant  beneath. 
Miss  Beaux  lacks  the  penetrative  glance, 
her  observation  rests  on  the  external 
picturesqueness  of  things. 


2QO       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

Perhaps  her  subjects  have  not  favoured 
a  display  of  spiritual  predominance.  But 
it  is  doubtful  whether  she  could  ever 
paint  the  head  of  an  Edison  satisfactorily ; 
she  might,  however,  paint  Paderewsky. 

Women  push  themselves  to  the  fore- 
ground everywhere,  but  the  result  is 
rather  dissatisfactory  and  tiresome.  Only 
Mariah  Oakey  (in  former  years),  Mary 
Cassett,  Cecilia  Beaux,  Maria  a  Becket, 
and  lately  Violet  Oakley,  have  shown 
superior  talents. 

Why  do  women  always  paint  such 
trifling  subjects?  Why  do  they  always 
imitate  men,  instead  of  trying  to  solve 
problems  which  have  never  been  touched 
before?  The  women  artists  have  still  to 
come  (Rosa  Bonheur  was  a  mere  sugges- 
tion) who  can  throw  a  new  radiance  over 
art  by  the  psycho-physiological  elements 
of  their  sex,  and  only  then  the  large  num- 
ber of  women  will  be  justified  in  modern 


Copyright,  1888,  by  F.  S.  Church, 

CHURCH.— VIKING'S  DAUGHTER- 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  293 

art.  The  woman  who  can  paint  men  as 
we  have  painted  women,  and  paint  women 
as  we  have  painted  men,  will  win  for  her- 
self the  laurel  wreath  of  fame. 

Clara  McChesney  is  one  of  the  few 
whose  art  shows  some  individuality,  de- 
spite the  fact  that  she  has  learnt  so  much 
from  certain  modern  Dutch  painters  that 
she  will  never  forget  their  methods.  The 
principal  merit  of  her  work  is  that  she 
paints  everything  as  if  seen  at  a  distance 
of  five  feet,  which  is  proper.  She  sur- 
prises by  a  monotony  of  tone  which  is 
only  surpassed  by  her  monotony  of  sub- 
jects. Her  figures  are  just  as  dull,  for- 
lorn, and  beggarly-looking  as  those  of 
Israels,  Neuhuys,  Artz,  etc. 

Other  conscientious  women  workers  of 
more  or  less  talent  are  Matilda  de  Cor- 
doba, Ida  Waugh,  L.  Fitzpatrick,  A.  E. 
Klumpke,  Clara  Weaver  Parrish,  Amelia 
B.  Sewell,  Jane  B.  Child,  Belle  Havens, 


294       A   HISTORY    OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

Elizabeth  Nourse,  Edith  Mitchell  Prell- 
witz,  etc. 

The  so-called  poetic  picture  is  fairly  in 
swing,  but  it  is  delightful  to  note  that  the 
artists  do  not  find  it  necessary  to  ransack 
the  pages  of  writers  for  a  subject,  but  rely 
upon  their  own  imagination. 

F.  S.  Church  (1842-  ),  with  his  elfin 
tandems,  ostrich  dances,  peacocks  in 
snow-covered  parks,  etc.,  was  the  pioneer 
in  this  direction.  At  times  he  gave  vent 
to  a  more  serious,  half-philosophic,  half- 
grotesque  strain  of  mind,  as  in  his 
"  Northern  Sphynx,"  a  monster  of  ice 
symbolising  the  dread  perils  of  polar  ex- 
plorations, "  The  Sybil,"  a  young  girl 
looking  at  the  head  of  a  mummy,  and 
his  etching,  "  Silence,"  the  head  of  a 
mummy  whose  lips  are  touched  by  a 
rose ;  but  he  always  returned  to  his  serio- 
comics,  —  his  bears  eating  ice-cream  and 
baking  griddle-cakes,  or  flimsily  clad  dam- 


THE    NEW   SCHOOL.  295 

sels  with  chafing-dishes  at  the  seashore, 
—  those  silly  and  yet  so  well-told  fairy 
tales  for  grown  up  people.  Church  was 
also  the  first  of  our  self-taught  men, 
who  unconsciously  introduced  some  of 
the  elements  of  Japanese  art  into  his 
pictures. 

A  Japanese  gentleman,  who  recently 
took  a  look  at  J.  Gellatly's  picture  collec- 
tion, to  the  astonishment  of  his  host,  only 
grew  enthusiastic  when  he  encountered 
some  canvases  of  F.  S.  Church.  He  did 
not  care  for  Th.  W.  Dewing's  ideal  repre- 
sentations of  American  womanhood,  nor 
for  old  Newman's  colour  dreams,  but  for 
the  "  Viking's  Daughter,"  with  a  cluster  of 
sea-gulls  fluttering  around  her  head,  which, 
with  the  well-known  "Surf  Phantom  "and 
"  Knowledge  is  Power,"  represents  the  best 
work  this  painter  has  produced.  Its  sug- 
gestiveness,  expressed  by  a  poetic  idea 
and  delicate  colours,  with  a  preference  for 


296       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

fragile  grays  and  whites,  interested  the 
man  from  the  land  of  chrysanthemums. 

E.  H.  Blashfield's  (1848-  )  career  is 
closely  identified  with  antique  genre  and 
decorative  picture  painting.  His  mature, 
intellectual,  and  dignified  talent  reached 
its  height  probably  in  his  "Angel  with 
the  Fiery  Sword."  "  Strains  of  Grey," 
depicting  a  laurel- wreathed,  youthful  fig- 
ure holding  a  large,  ancient  string  in- 
strument in  its  hand,  is,  for  its  simple 
composition,  the  naiVe  pose  of  the  figure, 
the  reverie  expressed  in  the  face,  and  its 
soft,  subdued  tone  of  delicious  grays,  per- 
haps the  most  satisfactory  work  the  artist 
has  accomplished. 

Siddons  Mowbray  was  born  1854,  of 
English  parents,  in  Alexandria,  Egypt. 
This  coincidence  apparently  has  influ- 
enced his  choice  of  subjects.  He  has 
become  the  depicter  of  half-draped  femi- 
ninity in  rich  costumes  lounging  about  in 


BLASHFIELD.  — STRAINS  OF  GREY. 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  299 

Oriental  interiors.  Only  in  a  few  in- 
stances has  he  attempted  more  important 
compositions  like  "  Aladdin,"  "  Rose  Har- 
vest," "Arcadia,"  " Scheherezade,"  and 
"  Evening  Breeze."  Although  neither  an 
ethnologist  striving  fatuously  to  recon- 
struct the  life  and  characteristics  of  the 
Orient,  nor  a  painter  of  simple  prettiness, 
he  was  unable  to  improve  upon  the  one 
particular  idea,  which  he  had  formed  and 
elaborated  in  early  life.  Other  artists  who 
treat  imaginative  subjects  are  Kenyon 
Cox,  G.  W.  Maynard,  W.  H.  Low,  E.  A. 
Bell,  Louis  Loeb,  Ch.  C.  Curran,  Bryson 
Burroughs,  H.  Prellwitz,  and  W.  F.  Kline. 
The  most  exalted  position  in  this  branch 
of  art  must  be  given  to  Thomas  W. 
Dewing  (1851-  ),  born  in  Boston,  a  pupil 
of  Boulanger  and  Lefebvre.  The  charm 
of  his  subjects,  for  instance,  his  "Musi- 
cian," a  lady  sitting  in  reverie  at  the  piano 
(at  the  house  of  Freer),  and  his  "Lady 


3<DO       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

in  Yellow"  ('89,  owned  by  Mrs.  J.  L. 
Gardner,  Boston),  gained  him  an  early 
reputation,  at  least  in  the  profession. 
During  my  manifold  visits  to  artists' 
studios,  I  asked  a  dozen  or  more  of  our 
prominent  painters,  belonging  to  the  most 
antagonistic  schools,  whom  they  consid- 
ered the  best  artists  of  America;  their 
lists  -varied  largely,  but,  strange  to  say, 
Dewing  was  invariably  mentioned. 

I,  for  my  part,  can  never  look  at  a 
picture  of  Dewing's  without  being  deeply 
moved.  His  instinct  for  beauty,  poetic 
expression,  and  mystic  grace  satisfy  my 
desire  to  forget  every-day  life  completely. 

His  pictures  leave  an  afterglow,  and 
that  is  a  decided  merit.  In  this  world, 
with  its  thousands  of  interests,  a  man's 
works  must  be  quite  powerful  in  order  to 
become  so  important  to  us  as  to  form  a 
part,  however  small  it  may  be,  of  our 
intellectual  life. 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  301 

Dewing's  pictures  have  a  certain  some- 
thing that  reminds  me  of  a  rare  piece  of 
furniture  which  has  been  beautified  by  a 
coating  of  vernis  Martin. 

I  know  of  nothing  in  painting  which 
possesses  such  an  exquisite  (intellectual) 
flavour,  except  it  were  the  browns  of  Or- 
chardson  or  the  grayish  greens  of  Theo- 
phile  Reichardt.  It  is  a  most  peculiar 
flavour.  I  am  quite  a  connoisseur  of  wines, 
let  me  see  if  I  can  fix  it.  It  is  some  rare 
brand.  It  is  neither  Chateau  d' Yquem,  nor 
Tokay,  nor  Lachrimae  Christi,  nor  Veuve 
Clicquot.  Now  I  have  it.  It  is  perhaps 
like  a  cup  of  Imperial  Japanese  tea,  at 
about  twenty  dollars  a  pound,  of  mild 
florescence,  delicious  in  taste,  and  yet  with 
some  strength,  by  no  means  effeminate. 

The  pictures  of  Dewing  are  devoted  to 
a  certain  type  of  human  beings;  to  rep- 
resent beautiful  ladies,  mostly  mature 
women  of  thirty,  is  their  sole  aim. 


3<D2        A    HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

The  ladies  all  seem  to  possess  large 
fortunes  and  no  inclination  for  any  profes- 
sional work.  They  all  seem  to  live  in  a 
Pre-Raphaelite  atmosphere,  in  mysterious 
gardens,  on  wide,  lonesome  lawns,  or  in 
spacious  empty  interiors,  where  one  feels 
a  son  aise,  with  something  Old  Italian 
about  them.  They  are  dressed  in  the 
latest  fashions,  which  are,  nevertheless,  so 
idealised  that  they  look  almost  like  the 
liberty  costumes  of  Burne  Jones.  These 
ladies  use  the  best  perfume  in  the  market. 
They  love  beautiful  large  flowers,  and 
their  long,  tapering  fingers  like  to  glide 
over  all  sorts  of  string  instruments,  and 
there  they  sit  and  stand,  and  dream  or 
play  the  lute  or  read  legends,  sometimes 
two  together,  sometimes  three,  and  even 
in  larger  numbers,  all  without  individu- 
ality, but  belonging  together  by  a  peculiar 
resemblance  of  costume,  of  form  and  sen- 
timent. As  with  the  majority  of  women, 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  303 

one  might  think  that  the  philosophy  of 
life  of  Dewing's  heroines  also  consisted 
of  fashion  and  amusement,  but  in  this 
company  of  idol-women  it  is  different; 
they  all  have  a  dream-like  tendency,  and, 
though  absolutely  modern,  are  something 
quite  different  from  what  we  generally  un- 
derstand by  modern  women.  Their  ideal 
is  to  be  found  probably  between  the 
Antique  and  the  Early  Renaissance. 
They  would  like  to  look  like  the  compan- 
ions of  Nausicaa,  as  Botticelli  conceives 
them,  with  the  education  and  reading  of 
a  grande  dame  of  the  Italian  High  Re- 
naissance. They  are  like  amateur  actresses 
in  sympathetic,  suffering,  passive  roles. 
They  entertain  a  conversation  as  far  re- 
moved from  our  world  as  was  the  party 
in  the  Decameron  of  Boccaccio  from  the 
pestilence,  only  that  our  society  lacks 
the  youthful  strength  and  pagan  ingenuity 
of  that  time. 


304       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

They  lead,  indeed,  a  life  of  reflec- 
tion ;  they  seem  to  be  melancholy  without 
reasons,  merely  because  suffering  is  poet- 
ical. When  Dewing  paints  them,  he  takes 
good  care  to  avoid  expressing  even  a  re- 
flection of  the  genuinely  devout  feeling 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  Rossetti  or  Henri 
Martin  do,  —  he  depicts  the  romantic  ten- 
dency of  our  refined  American  ladies,  who 
transform  their  boudoirs  into  sanctuaries 
devoted  to  the  worship  of  their  own  indi- 
vidual tastes,  who  read  Swinburne,  are 
fond  of  orchids,  and  loll  about  on  divans 
in  their  large,  solitary  parlours,  in  expecta- 
tion, perhaps,  of  a  sentimental  knight  in 
glittering  armour  (made  of  silver  dollars) 
prancing  in  on  a  palfrey. 

Thomas  Dewing  is  the  only  American 
painter  who  has  succeeded  in  giving  us 
pictures  of  women  that  might  stand  for 
the  "  ideal  American  "  type. 

He  does  not  merely  get  their  aesthetic 


THE    NEW    SCHOOL.  307 

elegance,  but  succeeds  in  making  them 
express  psychological  suggestions  (pro- 
duced by  indolence  in  an  artistic  atmos- 
phere) with  a  vague  mixture  of  the  Pari- 
sian demi-monde,  a  rare  combination  of 
piquancy,  refinement,  and  dream-like  qual- 
ities. He  is  also  an  excellent  portrait 
painter  of  women,  but  after  all  best  in 
those  compositions  which  recall  the  fla- 
vour of  Imperial  tea  and  the  hue  of  vernis 
Martin,  gems  like  "A  Musician,"  like 
several  of  his  long-necked  ladies  in  yel- 
low, in  black,  or  in  blue,  each  distinct  in 
their  soul  atmosphere;  as  also  in  that 
modern  Tanagra  figure  called  "Girl  in 
White,"  in  his  delicate  pastels  and  dainty 
fancies  in  silver  point,  and  the  exquisite 
poem,  "  In  the  Garden,"  one  of  the  few 
perfect  masterpieces  which  American 
figure  painting  has  produced. 

The  quality  in  Dewing's  work  which 
appeals  to  me  beyond  every  other  is  its 


308       A   HISTORY   OF  AMERICAN   ART. 

personal  character;  it  reflects  the  man's 
mind,  that  of  a  refined  epicureanism, 
choosing  naturally  to  live  among  dainty 
surroundings  and  beautiful  women ;  it  is  a 
fastidious  seeking  of  the  unconvention- 
ally beautiful  and  an  expression  of  it  that 
does  not  smack  of  any  school,  although  it 
shows  a  hard  and  severe  training  of  the 
eye  and  hand,  and  no  sparing  of  strenuous 
study. 

It  is  left  to  us  now  to  mention  that 
artist  who  is  most  fit  to  conclude  this 
chapter,  as  he  represents  both  schools, 
the  old  in  his  technique,  and  the  new  in 
his  ideas.  It  would  be  more  just  still  to 
say,  perhaps,  that  he  belongs  to  no  school 
at  all,  as  he  is  one  of  those  idealists  who 
might  have  been  born  at  any  time  and  in 
any  land.  I  mean  A.  P.  Ryder  (1841-  ), 
born  at  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  self-taught, 
enjoying  for  a  short  time  only  the  tuition 
of  W.  E.  Marshall,  the  engraver. 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  309 

I  do  not  remember  under  what  circum- 
stance the  name  of  A.  P.  Ryder  was  first 
mentioned  to  me;  there  was,  however, 
something  about  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  mentioned  that  made  an  impression 
upon  me.  Then  I  recalled  having  seen 
an  article  in  the  Century  a  few  years 
ago  (June,  1890),  in  which  several  wood 
engravings  from  his  pictures  —  though 
too  much  Kingsley  and  not  enough 
Ryder  —  interested  me  so  much  that  I 
forgot  to  read  the  text.  A  tempting 
suggestion  of  some  unexplored  mystery 
rose  within  me,  and  I  decided  to  visit 
Ryder. 

This  was  not  easy ;  more  than  a  dozen 
times  I  called  at  the  simple,  old-fashioned 
house  in  East  Eleventh  Street  where  he 
used  a  third  story  back  room  as  studio. 
Then  I  wrote  him  about  my  many  fruit- 
less calls,  and  received  as  reply  a  kind 
invitation,  with  an  excuse  for  not  having 


3IO       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN    ART. 

been  in,  as  he  had  been  "absorbing  the 
lovely  November  skies." 

On  the  appointed  evening  I  met  him  in 
a  tavern.  I  have  a  very  bad  memory  for 
faces,  and  therefore  do  not  dare  to  de- 
scribe Mr.  Ryder's  appearance,  as  inter- 
viewers are  apt  to  do.  A  reddish  full 
beard,  a  dreaminess  in  his  eyes,  a  certain 
softness,  with  a  touch  of  awkwardness  in 
his  general  bearing,  seemed  to  me  leading 
characteristics. 

After  a  glass  of  beer  and  a  cigar  we 
strolled  to  his  workshop  near  by. 

As  I  entered  the  little  two-windowed 
den  —  Mr.  Ryder  lighting  the  gas  jet 
which  could  not  even  pride  itself  on  hav- 
ing a  globe  —  my  eye  met  a  great  disor- 
der of  canvases  of  a  peculiar  dark  turbid 
tone,  lying  about  in  every  possible  posi- 
tion, amidst  a  heap  of  rubbish  and  a  few 
pieces  of  old,  rickety,  dusty  furniture,  cov- 
ered with  clothes,  old  magazines  and 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  3!  I 

papers,  boxes,  plaster  casts,  a  collection 
of  odds  and  ends  of  cord  and  twine  neatly 
rolled  up,  etc.  —  everything  spotted  with 
lumps  of  hard,  dry  colour  and  varnish. 
I  involuntarily  had  to  think  of  a  dump  in 
which  street  urchins  might  search  for 
hidden  treasures. 

Mr.  Ryder  began  to  show  me  some  of 
his  half-finished  pictures,  and  I  was  car- 
ried away  into  a  fairyland  of  imaginative 
landscapes,  ultramarine  skies  and  seas, 
and  mellow,  yellowish  lights,  peopled  by 
beings  that  seemed  to  be  all  poetic  fancy 
and  soul: 

Scenes  from  " The  Tempest"  and  "  Mac- 
beth ;  "  a  skeleton  on  horseback  galloping 
through  an  empty  racetrack  in  the  moon- 
light; a  Desdemona;  a  scene  of  Arabs 
with  camels  and  tents ;  a  landscape  with 
soft,  greenish  notes  and  a  good  deal  of 
yellow  in  it;  a  few  moonglade  marines, 
little  canvases  that  might  serve  as  "per- 


312       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

manent  colour  inspirations;"  a  Christ 
and  Magdalen,  apparently  undertaken 
more  to  express  individual  sensuousness 
than  Biblical  glory. 

They  passed  on,  one  by  one ;  I,  having 
a  peculiar  mania  for  searching  in  every 
expression  of  art,  and  life  as  well,  for  its 
most  individual,  perhaps  innermost  es- 
sence, tried  in  vain  to  form  an  estimate. 

I  anxiously  lay  in  wait  for  an  opportunity 
to  enter  Ryder's  individuality;  to  find  a 
key  to  all  its  treasures.  His  sense  for 
colours  —  gorgeous,  ponderous  as  it  is  in 
his  blues,  soft,  caressing  in  his  yellows, 
and  weird  in  his  lilac  greens  —  seems  to 
me  but  an  inferior  quality.  I  fail  to  see 
that  he  is  a  great  colourist ;  surely  he  is 
not  a  colourist  in  the  sense  of  Titian, 
Delacroix,  Turner,  Makart,  Bocklin,  or 
Chavannes  —  even  La  Farge  and  New- 
man are,  in  my  opinion,  by  far  better 
colourists;  he  is  not  even  a  tone  painter 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  313 

like  Michel,  Whistler,  or  Maris;  also,  to 
Monticelli  and  Diaz  he  is  related  more  in 
regard  to  method  than  colour;  Ryder  is 
a  chiaroscurist,  an  ideal  black-and-white 
artist,  with  a  special  aptitude  for  moon- 
light effects.  His  technique,  reminding 
me  somehow  of  Blake's  wood-cuts,  is  quite 
his  own:  the  heavy  "loading"  of  his 
canvases,  the  muddy,  rather  monotonous 
brush  work  (holding  the  brush  at  the  mid- 
dle of  the  handle  and  hesitatingly  drag- 
ging it  across  the  canvas),  the  constant 
using  of  strong  contrasts  of  dark  and  light 
colours,  and  the  lavish  pouring  of  varnish 
over  the  canvas  while  he  paints,  to  realise 
lustre,  depth,  and  mystery. 

Ryder  showed  me  a  little  panel,  not 
larger  than  6  x  10,  representing  a  mediaeval 
maiden  sitting  on  the  shore  and  playing 
the  lute,  while  behind  her  in  the  distance 
vessels  are  floating  by. 

"  I  tried  to  make  it  like  a  little  volume 


314       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

of  poetry,"  he  remarked.  And  then  he 
recited,  with  a  nonchalant  but  soul-steeped 
voice,  the  poem  he  had  written  to  it : 

"  By  a  deep  flowing  river 

There's  a  maiden  pale, 
And  her  ruby  lips  quiver 
A  song  on  the  gale. 

"  A  wild  note  of  longing, 
Entrancing  to  hear  — 
A  wild  song  of  longing 
Calls  sad  on  the  ear. 

"Adown  the  same  river 
A  youth  floats  along, 
And  the  lifting  waves  shiver 
As  he  echoes  her  song. 

u  Nearer,  still  nearer 

His  frail  bark  doth  glide ; 

Will  he  shape  his  course  to  her 

And  remain  by  her  side  ? 

«*  Alas,  there's  no  rudder 

To  the  ship  that  he  sails ; 

The  maiden  doth  shudder  — . 

Blow  seaward,  ye  gales  1 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  315 

"  Sweeter  and  fainter 

The  song  cometh  back, 
And  her  brain  it  will  bother 
And  her  heart  it  will  rack. 

"  And  thus  she'll  grow  paler 
With  this  fond  memory, 
Paler  and  paler 

And  thus  she  will  die." 

Some  artists  accuse  him  of  being  de- 
pendent on  the  old  masters.  Probably 
they  are  right;  every  artist  must  get  his 
inspirations  somewhere,  it  really  matters 
little  where,  as  long  as  he  is  original  him- 
self. True,  Ryder's  pictures  are  some- 
what like  old  masters;  yet  they  rather 
look  like  old  pictures  in  general,  than  re- 
semble any  particular  master,  and,  there- 
fore, this  mediaeval  appearance  indicates 
no  imitative,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a 
creative  faculty. 

Also,  in  painting  poetic  subjects,  he  can 
hardly  be  called  dependent.  What  have 


31 6       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

Chaucer's  lines  to  do  with  yonder  boat 
floating  mysteriously  on  moonlit  waters  ? 
There  is  some  female  figure  in  the  boat, 
but  what  matters  it  to  us  whether  it 
be  a  heroine  of  Chaucer's  or  Ryder's 
imagination. 

Looking  about  the  room,  I  suddenly 
saw  a  life-size  portrait  gazing  at  me  from 
a  corner.  The  first  glance  told  me  that 
it  was  a  man  in  United  States  uniform; 
after  that  I  only  saw  the  face :  the  tight- 
ened lips,  the  eyeS)  it  was  as  if  a  soul  were 
bursting  from  them,  and  then  it  seemed 
to  me  as  if  Ryder,  his  soul  was  steadily 
gazing  at  me. 

This  portrait  immediately  gave  me  a 
keener  insight  into  his  artistic  character 
than  any  other  picture.  Everything  was 
sacrificed  to  express  the  radiance  of  the 
innermost,  the  most  subtle  and  most 
intense  expression  of  a  human  soul.  Per- 
haps my  impulsive  nature,  the  extraordi- 


THE   NEW   SCHOOL.  317 

nary  hour,  the  gaslight's  hectic  glare  o'er 
the  lapis-lazuli  spots  on  his  canvases  may 
explain  a  good  deal  of  the  enchantment  I 
felt  on  that  evening.  One  thing  is  sure, 
that  my  first  visit  to  Ryder  was  one  of 
those  hours  never  to  be  forgotten. 

It  is  Ryder's  overflow  of  sentiment, 
curbed  (sometimes  even  suppressed  for 
the  moment)  by  a  sturdy  awkwardness, 
which  also  now  and  then  appears  on  the 
apparently  so  mild  surface  of  his  charac- 
ter; this  patient  waiting  (running  away 
from  his  studio  to  absorb  November  skies 
or  moonlit  nights,  and  returning  to  his 
canvases  at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night 
whenever  a  new  idea  suggests  itself)  until 
he  can  condense  all  the  manifold  inspira- 
tions, of  which  a  picture  is  created,  into 
the  most  perfect  one  at  his  command, 
makes  his  art  so  great  that  it  can  hold  its 
ground,  even  in  the  company  of  illustrious 
masterpieces. 


318       A   HISTORY   OF   AMERICAN   ART. 

One  must  see  his  "  Siegfried "  (owned 
by  Van  Hornen,  Montreal)  riding  along 
the  Rhine,  meeting  the  Rhinedaughters 
near  a  mighty  oak,  all  bathed  in  a  cold, 
armour-glittering  moonshine,  to  realise 
how  he  can  flood  a  picture  with  sensu- 
ous, bewitching  poetry;  and  in  order  to 
fathom  how  far  he  can  climb  in  grandeur 
of  thought  and  composition  one  must 
study  his  "Jonah"  (owned  by  C.  E.  S. 
Wood,  Portland,  Ont.),  and  his  "  Flying 
Dutchman,"  the  world-weary  phantom 
ship,  adrift  on  the  tempestuous  sea  of 
time,  —  its  colossal  troughs  bedizened 
with  the  lurid  glamour  of  a  goblin  sun, 
—  is  seen  struggling  in  the  left  dis- 
tance, in  an  atmosphere  laden  with 
Good  Friday  gloom  and  glory,  on  a 
mighty  wave,  upwards!  This  upward 
movement  is  genius,  pure  and  mighty, 
that  will  live  for  centuries  to  come 
(if  no  varnish  slides  occur).  It  is  a 


THE   NEW    SCHOOL.  32! 

picture  as  impressive  as  religion,  one 
of  the  few  that  sound  the  note  of  sub- 
limity which  is,  after  all,  the  highest  in 
art. 


END   OF  VOLUME   I. 


INDEX. 


Alexander,  Cosmo,  16. 
Allston,  Washington,  16,  32 

36  et  seq.,  43. 
Ames,  146. 
Angelo,  Michael,  69. 
Armstrong,  186. 

Babcock,  W.  A.,  187. 
Bainbridge,  Henry,  35. 
Baker,  G.,  146,  149. 
Barnard,  E.,  102. 
Bartol,  Elizabeth  H.,  169. 
Battoni,  35. 
Beard,  W.  H.,  241. 
Beaux,  Cecilia,  286, 288  et  seq,, 

290. 

Becket,  Maria  a,  104,  239,  290. 
Beckwith,  Carroll,  223. 
Bell,  E.  A.,  224,  299. 
Bellows,  A.  F.,  66. 
Berry,  P.  V.,  67. 
Besnard,  102. 
Bierstadt,  Albert,  69. 
Blackburn,  16. 
Blake,  313. 
Blakelock,  R.  A.,  107. 
Blashfield,  E.  H.,  296. 
Blum,  Robert,  254,  258,  284 

et  seq. 


Bocklin,  312. 
Bonheur,  Rosa,  2901 
Bonnat,  289. 
Bouguereau,  217. 
Bradford,  William,  232. 
Brandegee,  R.  L.,  286,  28? 
Bremen,  Meyer  von,  153. 
Bridgman,  174,  220. 
Bristol,  J.  B.,  66. 
Brown,  Geo.  L.,  57. 
Brown,  Harry,  232. 
Brown,  J.  B.,  155. 
Brown,  Madox,  186. 
Brown,  Ogden,  240. 
Browne,  Appleton,  108. 
Brush,  George  de  Forrest,  220 

262,  265. 

Bullard,  O.  A.,  16. 
Bunce,  Gedney,  236. 
Burne  Jones,  302. 
Burroughs,  Bryson,  299. 

Caliga,  J.  H.,  280. 
Carlsen,  Emil,  250. 
Gary,  W.,  260. 
Casilear,  J.  W.,  58. 

assett,  Mary,  290. 

atlin,  G.,  152. 
Cazin,  107. 


323 


324 


INDEX. 


Chartran,  153. 

Chase,  W.  M.,  117,  219,  220, 

221,  226,  229,  250,  254. 
Chavannes,  134,  312. 
Child,  Jane  B.,  293. 
Church,  Fred'k  E.,  70  et  seq., 

140. 
Church,  F.  S.,  109,  135,  241, 

294  et  seq. 
Cole,  Thomas,  46  et  seq.,  140, 

233- 
Colman,    Samuel,     77,     220, 

254. 

Constable,  48,  66. 
Cook,  Clarence,  77. 
Copley,   John   Singleton,    15, 

16,  20,  21,  141. 
Coralossi,  217. 
Cordoba,  Matilda  de,  293. 
Corot,  79,  93,  95,  107. 
Cotton,  Mrs.  Leslie,  230. 
Couture,  146,  165,  166,  167. 
Cox,  Kenyon,  223,  299. 
Cranch,  C.  P.,  58. 
Cronau,  Rudolf,  260. 
Cropsey,  J.  F.,  59  et  seq. 
Crowninshield,  186. 
Curran,  C.  C.,  109,  230,  231. 
Currier,  220. 

Daingerfield,  E.,  187. 

Dannant,  220. 

Daubigny,  105,  128. 

David,  21,  35. 

Davis,  Charles  H.,  85,  86  et 

seq. 

Dean,  Walter,  236. 
Dearth,  G.  H.,  117. 
Deas,  152. 
De  Forrest,  220. 
Degas,  226. 
Delacroix,  312. 


Deming,  E.  W.,  260. 

De  Neuville,  251. 

Detaille,  252. 

Dewey,  Melville,  56. 

Dewing,  Mrs.,  249. 

Dewing,    Thomas    W.,    135, 

191,  245,  295,  2<)<)etseq. 
Diaz,  107,  313. 
Dix,  Charles  Temple,  232. 
Dodge,  260. 
Doornick,  F.  V.,  16. 
Doughty,  Thomas,  52  et  seq. 
Dow,  A.  B.,  112. 
Dunlap,  William,  46. 
Dupre,  79,  93,  107. 
Duran,  Carolus,  217,  286. 
Durand,  Asher  B.,  46,  53. 
Duveneck,  Frank,  220,  223. 

Eakins,  Thomas,  189,  200  et 

seq.,  220. 

Eaton,  Charles  W.,  117. 
Eaton,  Wyatt,  220,  221. 
Edmonds,  F.  W.,  151. 
Eggleston,  Benjamin,  280. 
Elliot,  Charles  Loring,  146. 
English,  F.  F.,  236. 
Enneking,  J.  J.,  102,  108. 
Eugene,  Frank,  224. 

Falconer,  J.  M.,  77. 

Farny,  H.  F.,  260. 

Farrar,  Henry,  77,  78. 

Feke,  Robert,  25. 

Fitz,  B.  R.,  42,  221. 

Fitzpatrick,  L.,  293. 

Forbes,  Elizabeth,  230. 

Foster,  Birket,  67. 

Freer,  F.  W.,  280. 

Fuller,  George,  42,   147,  208 

et  seq.,  219,  220. 
Furness,  Henry,  177. 


INDEX. 


325 


Gainsborough,  27,  107. 
Gallagher,  Sears,  109. 
Gaugengigl,  J.  M.,  283. 
Gaul,  Gilbert,  251,  259. 
Gay,  Edward,  65. 
Gerome,  217,  271. 
Gerry,  S.  L.,  58. 
GifEord,   Sandford   R.,   55 

seq. 

Gifford,  Swain,  85. 
Gignoux,  Regis,  95. 
Goodrich,  Miss,  149. 
Graves,  Abbott,  249. 
Gray,  H.  P.,  146,  149. 
Greatorex,  Eliza,  253. 
Green,  Miss,  248. 
Greene,  C.  E.  L.,  117. 
Guy,  Francis,  253. 
Guy,  S.  J.,  163. 

Haas,  F.  H.  de,  234. 
Hale,  Geo.  R.,  248. 
Halsall,  W.  F.,  239. 
Halsted,  R.  H.,  96  et  seq. 
Hamilton,  E.  W.  D.,  260. 
Hamilton,  Hamilton,  85. 
Hamilton,  James,  233. 
Harding,  Chester,  140. 
Harpignies,  128. 
Hart,  James,  64,  65,  240. 
Hart,  William,  64,  65,  240. 
Hartshorne,  H.  M.,  207. 
Hassam,  Childe,  102,  254. 
Haven,  F.  de,  118,  119. 
Havens,  Belle,  293. 
Hayden,  102. 
Hayes,  William,  240. 
Heade,  M.  J.,  248. 
Healy,  146. 
Heinigke,  186. 
Henri,  R.,  106,  257. 
Henry,  E.  L.,  156. 


Herter,  Albert,  109. 
Hicks,  146,  148. 
Hill,  Thomas,  69,  75,  78. 
Homer,    Winslow,   109,   164, 

189  et  seq.,  240,  250. 
Hovenden,  Th.  F.,  281. 
Howe,  240. 

et    Hubbard,  R.  W.,  58. 
Hunt,  W.  M.,  105, 

218,  219,  220,  250. 
Huntington,  Daniel,  146,  149 

et  seq. 

Inman,  Henry,  \y)etseq. 
Inness,  George,  94  et  seq.,  219, 

220,  241. 
Irving,  J.  B.,  151. 

Johnson,  David,  66. 
Johnson,  Eastman,  157  et  seq. 
Johnson,  Fred.,  163. 
Jones,  Bolton,  108. 
Julien,  217,  226. 

Kappes,  Alfred,  164. 
Keith,  W.,  75,  78. 
Kendall,  Sargent,  112,  280. 
Kensett,  John  F.,  55. 
King,  Samuel,  16. 
Klumpke,  A.  E.,  293. 
Kost,  F.,  119. 
Krimmel,  J.  L.,  253. 

La  Farge,  109,  178,  218,  220, 

249,  258,  312. 
Lamb,  186. 
Landseer,  240. 
Langley,  Chas.  E.,  230. 
Lathrop,  Francis  L.,  179. 
Lathrop,  W.  L.,  109,  119, 120. 
Latoix,  Gaspard,  260. 
Lawrence,  Thomas,  33,  48. 


326 


INDEX. 


Lawrence,  W.  H.,  258. 
Lawson,  E.,  102. 
Lay,  Oliver  J.,  163. 
Le  Clear,  146. 
Lee,  Homer,  118. 
Lefebvre,  217. 
Le  Page,  Bastien,  156,  218. 
Lessing,  6l  etseq.,  145. 
Leutze,  Emmanuel,  142,  250. 
Linford,  Charles,  116. 
Lockwood,  Wilton,  280. 
Loeb,  Louis,  280,  299. 
Lofftz,  278. 
Lorraine,  Claude,  48. 
Low,  W.  H.,  223,  299. 
Lungren,  117,  254. 

Macomber,  M.  L.,  187. 

Magrath,  William,  162. 

Malbone,  16. 

Manet,  101,  105,  106. 

Maris,  313. 

Martin,  Henri,  304. 

Martin,  Homer,  94,  101,  105, 

220. 

May,  Edward  Harrison,  165. 
Maynard,  G.  W.,  299. 
McChesney,  Clara,  109,  293. 
McConkey,  140. 
McEntee,  Jervis,  83  et  seq.,  90. 
Mcllhenny,  Morgan,  116. 
Meeker,  J.  R.,  58. 
Mengs,  35. 
Meteyard,  102. 
Meyer,  F.  B.,  154. 
Michel,  79,  313. 
Mielatz,  254. 
Mignot,  Louis,  57. 
Miller,  Chas.  H.,  67,  219. 
Millet,  79,  95,  106,  166. 
Minor,  R.  C.,  107. 
Moeller,  Louis,  282. 


Monet,  101,  102,  106. 

Monks,  J.  A.  S.,  242. 

Monticelli,  313. 

Moore,  Chas.,  78. 

Moran,  Peter,  240. 

Moran,    Thomas,  69,  70,  74, 

78,  219. 
Moreland,  240. 
Morot,  252. 

Morse,  Samuel  F.  B.,  137. 
Mosler,  260. 
Mount,  William  Sidney,  140, 

I5°>  153- 

Mowbray,  Siddons,  296. 
Murphy,  J.  F.,  109. 

Naegle,  146. 

Needham,    Charles   A.,    118, 

257. 

Nehlig,  Victor,  152. 
Newman,  R.  L.,  188,  295,  312. 
Nichols,  Rhoda  Holmes,  109. 
Norton,  W.  E.,  235. 
Nourse,  Elizabeth,  294. 

Oakey,  M.  R.,  220,  249,  290. 
Oakley,  Violet,  187,  290. 
Ochtman,  L.,  112. 
Overbeck,  35. 

Page,  William,  146,  147. 

Fairish,  Clara  Weaver,  293. 

Parrish,  Stephen,  112,  115. 

Parshall,  78. 

Parsons,  258. 

Part  on,  Arthur,  118. 

Peale,  Charles  Wilson,  16,  26. 

Pearce,  C.  S.,  220. 

Pennell,  254. 

Peters,  Charles  Rollo,  76. 

Peters,  John  E.  C.,  234. 

Picknell,  W.  L.,  85  et  seq. 


INDEX. 


327 


Pine,  1 6. 

Pissaro,  101. 

Platt,  C.  A.,  112. 

Poore,  H.  R.,  242. 

Pratt,  Matthew,  25. 

Prellwitz,  Edith  Mitchell,  294. 

Prichard,  J.  A.,  117. 

Quidor,  John,  148. 

Rafaelli,  102. 
Ranger,  H.  W.,  107. 
Ranney,  W.  H.,  152. 
Redfield,  106. 
Rehn,  F.  K.  M.,  239. 
Reichart,  Theophile,  301. 
Reid,  Robert,  230. 
Renoir,  101. 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  22. 
Richards,  W.  T.,  64,  233. 
Richardson,  H.  H.,  i?9- 
Rix,  Julian,  107. 

Robbins,  Horace,  78. 

Robert,  156. 

Robinson,  Theodore,   103  et 
seq.,  220. 

Robinson,  W.,  102,  I73»  24° 

Rogers,  Donoghue,  85. 

Rollins,  Miss,  248. 

Romney,  27. 

Rosa,  Salvator,  34,  4°- 

Rossetti,  304. 

Rothermel,  250. 

Rousseau,  79,  95,  107. 

Ruskin,  156. 

Ryder,  A.    P.,   82,    239,    241, 
308  et  seq> 

Sargent,  220. 

Sartain,  William,  174- 

Savage,  E.,  16. 

Schilling,  Alexander,  119, 120. 


Schofield,  106. 

Scott,  Miss  E.  M.,  249. 

Scott  Julian,  250. 

Schreyer,  259. 

Schussel,  64. 

Senat,  Prosper  L.,  174. 

Sewell,  Amelia  B.,  293. 

Shadow,  145. 

Shearer,  64,  102. 

Sherwood,  Emma,  230. 

Shilling,  A.,  109. 

Shinn,  Everett,  258. 

Shirlaw,  Walter,  74,  109,  219, 

22O,  221,  223,  259. 

Shurtleff,  R.  M.,  64,  241. 

Simmons,  Edward,  284. 

Sisley,  101. 

Smillie,  George,  78. 

Smillie,  James,  78. 

Smith,  De  Cost,  260. 

Smybert,  John,  15. 

Snell,  Henry  B.,  no,  239. 

Snyder,  240. 

Sonntag,  W.  L.,  65. 

Staigg,  146,  149- 

Sterner,  A.  E.,  109. 

St.  Gaudens,  218. 

Story,  Geo.  A.,  177. 

Stuart,    Gilbert,  16,  26,   137. 

141. 
Sully,    Thomas,    32    et   seq^ 

141- 
Suydam,  J.  A.,  58. 

Taylor,  102. 

Thayer,  Abbot,  135,  220,  265, 

271  et  seq. 
Thorn,  J.  C.,  164. 
Thomas,  Seymour,  230. 
Thompson,  Wordsworth,  102. 
Thorpe,  J.  B.,  240. 
Thouron,  H.  J-,  i»o. 


328 


INDEX. 


Tiffany,  Louis  C.,  1 86,   220, 

253- 

Tintoretto,  43. 
Titian,  312. 
Tompkins,  F.  O.,  277. 
Trego,  W.,  251. 
Triscott,  S.  P.  R.,  109. 
Trumbull,  John,    15,   26,   31, 

43»  46. 
Tryon,  Dwight   W.,  94,   101, 

121,  126  et  seq.,  191,  220, 

245. 

Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  48,  312. 
Turner,  Ross,  109. 
Twachtman,  J.  H.,  112,  220. 

Ullman,  E.  P.,  230. 

Vanderlyn,  John,  32,   34,  41 

et  seq. 

Van  Dyck,  15. 
Van  Huysum,  248. 
Vedder,  Elihu,  82. 
Velasquez,  226. 
Veronese,  43. 
Vinton,  286. 
Volk,  D.,  220. 

Wagner,  Jacob,  102. 
Walker,    Horatio,    109,   1 2 1, 
242  et  seq. 


Walker,  H.  O.,  276. 
Ward,  E.  M.,  162. 
Warner,  Olin,  220. 
Waterman,  Marcus,  173,  241. 
Waugh,  Ida,  293. 
Weber,  Paul,  63  et  seq. 
Weeks,  174. 
Weir,  Alden,  249. 
Weir,  John  F.,  154. 
Weir,  Robert  W.,  141. 
Weldon,  C.  D.,  258. 
West,  Benjamin,  21  et  seq.,  35. 
Whistler,  J.  McN.,  135,  190, 

220,  226,  313. 
White,  Edwin,  162,  164. 
Whitman,  Mrs.  S.  W.,  169. 
Whittredge,  Worthington,  64. 
Wiggins,  Carleton,  240. 
Willard,  A.  W.,  154. 
Wiles,  Irving,  230. 
Williams,  16. 
Wiman,  C.  F.,  152. 
Wood,  T.  W.,  154,  164. 
Woodbury,  C.  H.,  116. 
Woodville,    Richard    Carton, 

151- 
Wyant,  A.  H.,  90  et  seq.,  220. 

Young,  Harvey,  173,  177. 
Zorn,  229,  286. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


L. 


UCLA-Art  Library 

N  6505  H25h  v.1 


